Through Their Eyes
by trusuprise
Summary: Through the eyes of the warriors of the Moon Kingdom, the threads are weaved to detail the destruction of a great civilization and how its events shaped the future.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue  
Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 1: Segue to the Past Life  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Standing in front of a wide bank of windows, four women slowly waved to a departing plane. It was a futile gesture, for surely the two people that that they waved to, rapidly ascending into the clear, spring sky aboard the hunk of streamlined metal, couldn't see them. The thunderous sound of jet engines faded slowly, only to be replaced as the next plane began its sprint down the runway.

Ami's hand hung in the air as if forgotten.

"Earth to Ami-chan?" Makoto released her clasped hands from the back of her head and waved one of them in front of her friend's vacant eyes.

Ami pulled her hand down self-consciously and smoothed her dark hair behind her ears. "Sorry, guys. I may be a bit of a bore," She offered a smile that fell flat. "Now that Mamoru-san and Usagi-chan have left for their honeymoon, I don't want you to feel like you have to stay until my plane leaves, too."

"Nonsense." Minako snorted, and then examined her friend a little closer. "You look tired, Ami-chan. Too much partying at the happy couple's reception last night?"

The young, prospective doctor blushed slightly and avoided the prying eyes of the leader of the senshi. "No. But I do admit that I haven't slept well since our battle with Mio before the wedding."

This seemed to garner a strong reaction, as both Makoto and Rei looked in Ami's direction. "Have your dreams been waking you, Ami-chan?" Rei asked.

"Yes," Ami said slowly. "Dreams."

"They're not dreams. And you're not the only one having them." Rei's voice was quiet but firm, her gaze distant. Her dark eyes followed a plane as it ascended into the sky. "They're memories." She said simply. "Memories of our past life."

Minako bit her lip in the effort to conceal her surprise. She shot her gaze to Rei - to the one woman least likely to say such a thing in so calm a manner. She struggled with her train of thought and forced her attention back to Ami. "What… what have you dreamt about?"

"Nothing concrete." Ami replied slowly. "Fractured images, small scenes."

Makoto nodded. "It's the same for me. I can't remember them too clearly. All I remember when I wake up is vivid emotions and fuzzy images. Sometimes… sometimes I don't even have to be _asleep_ to experience it."

Minako turned to the miko that refused to meet her gaze. "Rei? What about you?"

The miko's lack of a response was equally telling. Rei brushed aside her dark bangs with her bandaged arm and pointedly avoided eye contact.

Ami steepled her fingers together. The small group found themselves drifting even closer together. In the busy airport, their need for closeness and quiet conversation was at odds with the shouted welcomes, tearful goodbyes, and disorganized bustle of the airline industry.

"I think," Ami said with measured words, "that Luna once told us that the memories of our past lives were buried within our hearts, and that someday, we would remember, as long as we kept protecting the Earth from its enemies. Perhaps it was the battle against Mio that triggered our memories. Perhaps it was the influence of the Legendary Sword that required our combined strength to activate that triggered it."

Ami's hands began to shake. She thrust them into the pockets of her light jacket and looked to Minako, searching for her leadership. "You're the only one of us… the only one who has always had these memories."

Minako fidgeted under the concentrated attention of all her friends, but she felt Rei's burning glare the most. "Ah… yes." Minako replied hesitantly.

"Then what do you think of this?" Ami asked.

"I think... I _know_ that your memories will return as a slow trickle." Minako stared at her hands. Her words were spoken quietly and with great respect. "You won't be able to control it-"

"I don't like the idea of that." Ami said hurriedly.

"Of the memories?" Minako asked.

"No. Of not having control of them as they come to me. It seems we all have various states of remembrance."

"And?" Makoto looked to Ami with no small amount of confusion as to what she hoped to achieve.

"And perhaps if we work together, we can facilitate a timeline. Something that makes sense. Something we can control together, instead of experiencing this frightening trickle of disconnected memories."

"Are you sure you want that, Ami-chan?" Minako asked gently, reaching a hand out to rest on Ami's arm. "The Silver Millennium wasn't exactly a pretty place."

Makoto's hands balled into fight fists. "The memories will come to us anyway. Ami-chan's right. I… I need to know too. Anything would beat this constant state of confusion I've been in. Now that I know you guys are going through it too… I want to know what it was like. Even though we all know how it ended."

"It's not just the _ending_ that was so painful, Makoto."

Both Makoto and Minako looked to the stoic miko. The singer's voice caught in her throat. "Rei?"

An overly cheerful voice that was much louder than it needed to be spilled from the intercom. "Flight number fifty-three, to London, England, will be departing from gate A in fifteen minutes. Would all ticketed guests-"

"Isn't that your cue?" Minako asked the woman they were supposed to be seeing off.

Ami shifted her small suitcase from one hand to another. "It was supposed to be. But I'm not leaving. Not until I _understand_ this."

Makoto nodded. Their logical friend wasn't the only one who needed answers. From her tall vantage point, she looked down at her leader. "Minako, will you help us?"

The singer looked down at a delicate, silver watch that hung loosely from a small wrist. Her manager would be expecting her soon. With the extended stay in Japan she'd planned, he was already scheduling several appearances on her behalf.

"I can make the time." She replied casually. Her gaze inevitably landed on her closest friend. "Rei?"

Rei issued a long-suffering sigh. "I would like… closure, as well." Thoroughly aware that her leader might have misconstrued her words, she bristled suddenly and a generous amount of her normal venom returned to lace her otherwise calm voice. "Though these memories of a past life mean _nothing_ to my life today."

Minako smirked; a quirky half smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth. "As you've made it abundantly clear on more than one occasion."

And when Minako met Rei's gaze, she was wholly surprised to find none of the anger and apprehension she'd always associated with discussion of their past lives. Instead, Minako was met with Rei's cool, dark eyes and a complete lack of expression, and now it was _her_ turn to become worried and distant. The normally confident leader floundered in Rei's calm resignation.

Finally, the stifling effect of hundreds of strangers that pressed around them seemed to make the four women understand that they needed the presence of each other now more than ever.

"Crown?" Minako finally suggested.

"Where else?" Makoto chuckled, and at least her warm laugh brought a smile to each woman's face as they followed Minako's lead.

* * *

Given the mid-day traffic, the drive from Narita back to Minato-ku was no short trip, and the ride in the back of Minako's hired limo was a silent one. At one point, Makoto gasped, no doubt while in the throes of a vivid memory. She was left to her remembrance; for, at the moment, any one of the others might have been experiencing the same thing.

They exited the car just as silently and descended the familiar concrete steps underneath the neon sign of the Crown Karaoke building. With tipped heads and bangs shielding their eyes, the four women who might have seemed a little too old to be singing karaoke in the middle of the day avoided the confused gaze of Motoki, who in turn, wondered why his girlfriend seemed so distant as she passed by his desk.

The invisible door didn't fail them, and the close friends descended the flight of steps to what had once been their secret base underneath the Crown. Makoto busied herself with wiping off the layer of dust that covered the table in the middle of the room before each of them distractedly took their assigned seats.

No small amount of time was spent staring at the only empty chair, the pink seat that belonged to Usagi. Each of them longed for the comforting presence of their Princess, but at the same time, they knew that this was something that they needed to do on their own.

No instruction was needed for the feat they were about to begin. Their thoughts simply aligned. The room seemed to shimmer, and suddenly, they were no longer in their secret base, but in a place far away, looking through the eyes of one of their own.

* * *

Author's Notes: And so begins my version of the PGSM Silver Millennium. Through Their Eyes will be told mostly through the experiences of the senshi's past-life personas, with several interludes back to the present day (promptly after the end of the Special Act). The story is about 28 chapters long and I'm hoping to provide regular updates.

As for pairings? Let's just say senshixsenshi. Nothing is cut quite so clearly when Serenity is around. Do expect Rei and Minako, obviously.

Thanks to all my Live Journal friends for their input, especially Mels. They've beta'ed scenes and snippets, and in some cases, entire chapters of TTE for the past ten months I've been writing (or ignoring) this.


	2. Chapter 2

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 2: All of Us  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

For a desert planet, Mars' climate was cold, and where she was pressed with her back against the limestone wall of an ancient temple, a dark haired foreigner huddled into her traveling cloak for warmth. Venus Minako had encountered no resistance in infiltrating the Temple of the Flame. The meager building and surrounding area at the edge of the vast, red desert had been but a ghost town and Minako had easily slipped into the fabled structure with ease.

Beneath her feet, the planet's red sands served as the gritty floor of a hallway. Unique, fuel-less flames flickered in flat, golden dishes that adorned the rough limestone walls. Through the small, glassless windows placed irregularly in the exterior walls, she occupied herself with gazing into the endless seas of sands illuminated by the dusky twilight.

Suddenly, Minako straightened. Having spotted the quarry she had been sent to collect, she pushed her frame away from the dusty ledge. Although her boots had seen far more hostile territory, somehow, her polished leather looked out of place striding stealthily through the wide halls designed for many more than the few lonely souls that drifted by about their duties.

Minako followed her target quietly, taking quiet paces that always kept her a measured distance from the Martian woman she pursued; a woman in simple, white robes who purposefully carried two buckets laden with water. Minako found herself studying the subtle sway of the woman's hips, the long raven hair that swung between slim but powerful shoulder blades, and a-

The prey turned then, and once she'd finally caught a clear glimpse of her proud, high cheekbones and flawless profile, the huntress found herself trapped.

"Why are you following me." The prey's cool demand was not a question.

Minako had to struggle to find a voice, a voice that had failed her for the first time in her life. "You," she croaked. She had to dig deep, tapping into reserves that had yet to fail her. "You're coming with me."

"Excuse me?" The Martian was indignant. "You can't just waltz in here and force me to leave my post." Without disturbing the water, she set her buckets down into the sandy floor before crossing her arms over her chest.

"Oh, you're important here?" Minako was fueled by the other woman's challenge. "A nameless acolyte to the Order of the Flame? Something tells me your absence wouldn't be noted."

The Martian's brow pursed. "Look, I don't know who you think you are, but-"

To this, the huntress smirked; a half smile that only seemed to make the other woman bristle. She didn't know what it was about her prey that sparked such an antagonistic streak in her, but she found that she could barely control it.

Minako wasted no time in backing the Martian against the wall, completely undeterred that she stood several inches shorter than the other woman.

"You seem to be going to great lengths to hide your identity by lingering here, Princess of Mars." Minako sneered and her prey froze. "We've been searching for you for a long time, _Rei_."

Rei refused to be affected. "So you know my name, and who I am. Do you expect me to be impressed?"

"I expect you to be impressed with what I'm here to offer you, yes."

"And just what would that be?"

"You hold the title of senshi."

"Senshi? A guardian to the Princess of the Moon?" Rei snorted, her nostrils flaring. "If you know so much about me, then what makes me think I'd leave my calling for such a thing?"

"I know your father kicked you out of his court when you were six, when he realized that you held powers over the flames." Minako's amused expression hardened. "Tell me, Martian. Why are you still just an acolyte after thirteen years of service to this temple?"

Rei's lips formed a thin, white line and she hissed quietly. "Because sometimes it's best to remain inconspicuous. Sometimes the people who keep themselves in the spotlight do little of substance while the people that quietly work the hardest do the most good."

"Is that so?" Minako seemed to digest this information, wondering if it was meant as a backhanded insult. She recovered quickly. "Yet, at the same time, acolyte, your planet is dying, just as are the others in this ill-fated solar system. What good will your hard work have done if Mars is destined to die anyway?"

"You think I don't know the fate of this planet?" Rei nearly snarled. The small flames in their golden dishes flared, flickered, and then returned to their prior state before she continued with gritted teeth and fiery eyes. "I have to _live_ with the visions of Mars' slow demise as the atmosphere fails and those who were too stubborn to leave finally perish with this barren, floating _rock!_"

The huntress never let her eyes waver from her prey's as she placed her hands on the taller woman's upper arms. She was unsurprised when Rei flinched from the physical contact. The Martian seemed a flight risk, and Minako knew with no small amount of uncertainty that she didn't want to let this woman slip through her fingers.

She was also more than aware that her vested interest in Rei was more than just the matter of national security she had been sent with as her cover.

"If you know what awaits, then why don't you leave this planet?" Minako's voice was suddenly soft and quiet, and this gentleness was no doubt an alien experience for her prey, who narrowed her dark eyes in response.

"Because my prayers and rituals are still valuable to those that stay behind."

"You know that this planet is doomed, regardless of your prayers, acolyte."

Rei's edginess only increased in response to the foreigner's sense of resigned calm. "Do you put so little stock in prayer?"

"I put stock in _myself_." The huntress clarified.

"I guess that's at least _one_ point you and I see eye to eye on."

"Then, if you're so confident in yourself and your abilities, come with me." Minako's voice was imploring, gentle, a stark contrast to their vicious sniping moments ago. "Come to the Moon. Become a senshi. Aid those that chose to _live_, the refugees from your planet and others who have already fled to the Moon to find a new hope. Shouldn't you be concentrating your powers on _them_?"

Rei snorted resignedly and the huntress felt the tiniest tremble where her hands held Rei's upper arms.

"You make a good argument…" Rei's voice was leading, and she searched the foreigner's caramel eyes, her question clear.

The huntress smiled, genuinely this time. "Minako. I'm Venus Minako. I, too, am senshi."

"If I were to accept, I would assume there is a catch."

"Isn't there always?"

Rei narrowed her dark eyes. "I would assume the catch would be having to work alongside _you_."

This earned a snort and an arched eyebrow from Minako. "I suppose you _could_ call me a catch." The roll of the Martian's eyes didn't go unnoticed and Minako chuckled quietly. "No, you mentioned the catch already."

"I must serve the Princess of the Moon, as well." Rei's gaze became distant.

"Yes. You must serve not only your planet, but the Princess and her Moon Kingdom."

"Well," the Martian straightened, "I suppose that would be an adequate distraction to keep _you_ out of my path."

Minako offered a radiant smile. "I don't think you'll get off that easy. I am the _leader_ of the senshi, after all."

Somehow, Minako's body seemed like it was gravitating even closer to Rei, but then, there were footfalls; quiet and deliberate. Minako turned to the intruder but did not back away from her prey. Long, flowing gowns of pure crimson indicated that the approaching woman was a high ranking Priestess, and it did not go unnoticed by her that the older, higher ranking woman passed with her head bowed low in deference to Rei.

"You're an acolyte by name only." Minako said quietly after they were alone once more.

Rei chose to ignore the obvious. "The death of my home is hard to accept," her voice was hoarse; her hot breath was in Minako's ear. "But if I can help those of my people that chose to live by aiding the Moon Kingdom, then perhaps…"

"Perhaps you could come with me?" Minako could not keep the slight twinge of hopefulness from her voice.

"Perhaps I _could_, if you'd get _off_ of me already."

"Ah!" Minako blushed deeply as she retracted her hands from where they'd never left the Martian's arms. She took a step backwards and instantly felt the loss of the other woman's reassuring presence.

But she was wholly pleased to note that Rei immediately took a step closer, as though she were eager to reclaim the space that had separated them, and that when she turned to lead Rei to her shuttle, there was something in the way in which the other woman followed two steps behind her that felt as natural as breathing.

* * *

Blue-gray puffs of smoke billowed from the shuttle's engines. The pings and pangs of metal as it cooled after an atmospheric descent seemed out of place in this green and humid world. With a gasping suction of air, the small craft's door opened.

A delicate woman stepped out of the shuttle and her eyes - dark brown with a slight hint of the deepest blue - stared into the vast jungle before her; an intricate network of canopy, limbs, vines, and scrub. She hadn't known what kind of greeting to expect of the sparsely populated backwater planet of Jupiter, but she hadn't expected to be met with absolutely nothing.

A vine to her right shifted. The delicate woman spun on her heel, her hand darting to a taser that hung from her hip. A woman, sparsely clothed in padded leather and gauzy cloth and carrying a spear that was taller than her own impressive height stepped from the edge of the jungle. The smaller woman's hand drifted away from her weapon, for she had the sudden impression that the only reason she'd heard the other woman's approach at all was because the pony tailed woman had allowed for it.

"Hey there!" The warrior from the jungle called loudly and raised her hand in greeting. In the canopy above her, a flock of brightly colored birds took to wing. "I believe you're looking for me. The name's Jupiter Makoto."

"Greetings," the foreigner choked. "I am Mercury Ami. I've been sent here to bring you to the Moon for your induction as senshi."

"I know. I'm ready to go." Makoto said cheerfully, closing the distance between herself and the other woman. The closer she came, the more clearly she could discern Ami's fine features that were pursed into a confused frown, and the more interested she became in the foreigner.

"You mean… you can leave just like that? No departure procedures? You can walk away all alone?" Ami had studied the Jovian planet and their fiercely independent ruling class closely. Although the Jovians tended to be almost nomadic and frequently traveled with different groups of people to learn new skills, the scholar was still caught off guard at what to her, would have been a breech in protocol.

The proud warrior only stood taller. "I may be a Princess, but I do not fear being alone."

Ami found herself looking away from the Jovian's intensity. "Then, will you be in need of transport for any of your people? I was instructed to send word back to the Moon if there were more refugees to be expected."

Makoto looked away sharply. Her knuckles turned white where they gripped her spear. "I've done all I could these past few months, traveling from tribe to tribe and spreading the word that Jupiter doesn't have long left. I fear that those who have already escaped to the Moon will be the last."

The Mercurian shook her head. "But your family…"

"They choose death before relocation. It is not an decision that lacks honor."

"I… I understand."

The two women stood before each other for a long moment.

"So…" the Jovian chanced, lifting the dire atmosphere with what seemed like a practiced ease. "Shall we be going?"

The Mercurian flushed at her breech in protocol. "Oh… yes! Yes. Please, follow me." She gestured towards her small craft and led the way. Her booted heels met the metal steps and even she had to duck her head slightly to enter the tiny cabin. A discreet glance behind her showed her that the Jovian had to bow slightly at the waist to enter, and even then, the top of her ponytail brushed against the door.

Ami took the small seat at the craft's helm and Makoto strapped herself into the co-pilot's chair, though she knew that what little experience she had with piloting machines would not be needed. The Mercurian set about readying the shuttle for launch, but couldn't ignore the novelty of the first person to ever share her shuttle with her.

"I must apologize. As it is more efficient and quicker than those of the Moon, I took my own private shuttle here. However, it is not designed much for comfort, or for people taller than Mercurians for that matter."

The Jovian seemed to enjoy Ami's light chuckle and she surveyed the tidy space with no small amount of wonder. "So this is Mercurian in design then?"

"Yes. It is." Ami said proudly.

Makoto turned bright eyes to the smaller woman. "Tell me, do you have someone back home on Mercury? Someone who's waiting for your return?"

"No!" The off-topic question had surprised her and Ami began to stutter. "Yes. No. I don't know! Perhaps." She sighed then, and forced a tentative response. "Just as they have on your dying planet, the majority of our peoples have evacuated Mercury. The one I… she's… on the Moon. Not on Mercury."

"Ahh, I see." Makoto chuckled and her warm laugh filled the small cabin.

Eager to turn the topic of conversation away from her, Ami managed to regain her wits in order to maintain conversation; feeling compelled to return the question that had been asked of herself. "And what of you? Do you have someone to return to here on Jupiter?"

"Oh, I have lots of lovers here, but none I need to return to." She winked at Ami then and reveled once again in the crimson blush that the other woman displayed, but she didn't want to make the girl too uncomfortable and so she changed the topic. "In any case, I hear this senshi business should keep me otherwise preoccupied. I guess there won't be much time for… relationships on the Moon."

Her offhand statement seemed to have the opposite effect she had desired and the delicate Mercurian chuckled nervously.

"Maa," Ami replied evasively, and she quickly turned away to busy herself with preparing her shuttle for the long return trip to the Moon.

* * *

Introductions had been messy and rushed. Their differences with one another had been abundantly clear from the get-go, and it was painfully obvious that it would take no small amount of effort for these four completely different women to get along with one another, let alone work together as an effective team.

"So, this is all of us then?" Minako walked a slow, calculating circle around the white marble room that served as an antechamber that preceded their personal suites. Minako tightened her circle, examining the senshi that would protect their Princess under her leadership.

"I'm glad we're all together." Even Rei and Makoto managed weak smiles for the shy but almost childishly content Ami. Smaller and younger than the others, the rest of them quickly found that it was easy to be kind to Ami, if not always to each other.

Makoto bowed slightly to the woman who would be their leader. "I look forward to our training, Minako-san." She said this with a broad smile and then turned to Rei. "And I look forward to fighting alongside a Martian. Your peoples' skill in battle nearly surpasses that of Jovians!"

Rei only frowned at this brash display of what one might consider friendliness. The two women glared at one another for a moment with pursed lips and narrowed eyes. Rei found herself edging closer to Minako, the only constant she'd had in this fast paced and alien environment that she'd been thrust into.

Makoto easily disregarded the unresponsive Martian and turned her attentions to her leader. "I'm not surprised to learn that the Uranians refused to evacuate their planet, but I'm shocked that more Neptunians didn't flee before the gasses choked off the remaining oxygen."

"Many did flee here," Minako's words carried a bitter edge and she slowly walked over to a wide bank of windows and stared out. "There, in the drying dirt of what was once the Sea of Serenity, are a large portion of the refugees from all of the solar system's planets, forced from their homes to live in Tent Cities at the foot of the Moon Palace, in a place that used to be deep under water."

Rei and Makoto looked down to the ramshackle towns that spread like twining roots across the drying dirt of what had once been an ocean. It was obvious that as the refugees had flooded the Moon, they had been left to fend for themselves, creating homes and shops out of any available building materials. True to the unfortunate nickname, there were many fabric tents set amongst the haphazardly constructed buildings.

The leader of the senshi sighed then, and tore her gaze from the disparaging sight. "We'll explore the cities later. You'll find a lot of self enforced segregation, but the different peoples seem to make it work and the Armies of the Moon have had little trouble keeping order down there."

There was a heavy silence and Minako snorted bitterly, her arms crossed over her chest. "They should have stopped calling this era the Silver Millennium two hundred years ago, when the outer planets began deteriorating and each of our economies started to crumble. Now all we are is a mishmash of refugees clinging to the fringes of life on this dying satellite, hoping for salvation."

Ami looked down at her hands. "Some would say that our lineage has come full circle." She looked up to find the gazes of her comrades studying her intently and she knew she had to clarify. "It is more than ironic that those that once left the Moon to forge their own countries on distant planets over a thousand years ago, end up coming back here when there's no place left to turn."

Makoto nearly chuckled. "I guess we _are_ all Lunarians at heart."

Rei snorted derisively. She refused to be compared to a Jovian. No matter how many times separated she was from the original Lunarian stock that had landed on her planet, she felt that she was first and foremost a Martian.

Minako felt the trouble brewing between Rei and Makoto and she made of show of walking between them and taking a seat on one of the couches to diffuse the situation. Sighing noisily, she gazed up at the highest point of the cathedral ceiling, "You may be right Makoto-san, but to answer your original question, the ruling class of both Neptune and Uranus chose to go down with the ship, so to speak."

"It's rumored that an alliance between the daughters of Uranus and Neptune sparked the royal families' decision to stay and die with their traditions in tact. They were never ones for traveling into the inner solar system, anyway." Ami clarified.

"Ho!" Not the type to dwell on depressing matters, Makoto slapped her thigh with a splayed hand and threw herself onto a couch alongside Ami's proper form. "I hear the heir of Neptune was quite the looker. Was she, Ami-chan?"

Ami colored under Makoto's outward affection, though she was quite used to the casual Lunarian suffix she seemed to attract. "She was… quite stunning." She agreed.

Rei refused to join the intimate setting, and instead paced restlessly behind Minako's seat. "I don't see where this topic is relevant to the mission we've been assigned by the Moon Kingdom."

"Spoil sport." Makoto spat beneath her breath.

"Get used to it." Rei barked.

Once again, the Martian and the Jovian engaged each other in a staring match. Minako rose from her seat and subtly placed herself in their line of vision.

"We all know that nothing can be done to reverse the fact that our planets are dying." At her leader's somber words, Makoto relented and stared at the floor. Rei continued pacing.

"As the sun cools and our homes settle into their new, permanent orbits, the climates change. As they drift further from the sun, the outer planets spin faster. Ground gets torn to gasses and oxygen becomes smothered by thick cloud cover. The inner planets have experienced a reverse effect. The ground hardens. Fertility fails. Water disappears. Even the Moon's snow capped mountains are no more. The Sea of Serenity is now a puddle drying in the dirt. Only the geo dome - the combined technological effort by all the refugees that are harbored here, keeps those of us on this dying satellite alive."

There was a heavy silence that Ami hoped to ease with her knowledge. "The demise of our homes is not coincidence. This phenomenon has been documented in solar systems of other galaxies as well, such as Andromeda and Centaurus. As solar systems age, the number of planets able to support life dwindles. Several prominent scientists, what few we have left, have already posed a theory that within a few centuries, the planets outside our asteroid belt will become gaseous giants while those inside the belt's reach will be transformed into nothing more than barren, rocky satellites."

Where her information had been meant to ease, it only had the opposite effect. Rei had no issue with voicing the one thing that none of the others would say outloud.

"And the only planet that has been spared this fate is Earth."

"Yes." Ami said quietly, her fingers steepled together and resting on her knees. "That is correct. The Earth is the one planet that has always had the best opportunity for supporting life all along."

Rei snorted. "And yet, while the rest of our peoples have fostered the Silver Millennium and prospered in alliance for centuries, the Earthlings have been the slowest to evolve, unable to even achieve space travel."

"You're wrong."

Minako's words weren't meant to be confrontational, but she felt Rei's sour glare on her all the same. "They've just recently become capable of space flight. They found the Moon Palace some months ago. They've… _rediscovered_ us."

"What kind of rock do _you_ live under, Rei?" Makoto barked.

The Martian bristled, both at the insult and the casual nature with which the Jovian had spoken her name. Only one person was on a first name basis with her and could speak to her so freely-

"Rei." The Martian woman paused at the gentle touch of the Venusian. Rei looked to Minako's small hand on her shoulder and found she'd been defused. Somewhat reluctantly she shrugged out of the touch and took a step away from Minako, slowly coming to stand before a wide window cut into the marble walls.

"The Earth is highly interested in our society." Ami said softly. "Diplomatic talks and visits should begin between our kingdoms soon. They wish to learn more about us, and our peoples wish to pursue opportunities on their planet as well."

"Coincidence in the timing that the solar system's refugees and the citizens of the Moon need a new place to call home?"

Minako glared at Rei and the two women held each other's gazes for an indeterminable about of time. "Purely coincidental," the Venusian replied. "I assure you."

"Aren't there risks?" Rei asked darkly, looking only at her commander. "Surely the Terrans haven't forgotten their ties to the Moon."

"Surely they _have_." Minako replied swiftly. "Since they lost the benefits of Lunarian longevity when they rebelled against the Moon Kingdom after the first Lunarians settled there long before the Silver Millennium began, the knowledge of their origins were lost to the generations that followed."

Ami nodded meekly. "We have proof that the Earthlings believe that their race has developed through a form of evolution traced through their primates. Though there are still ancient myths that they are descended from a culture on the Moon, along with other various creation myths, it is not a theory that is widely accepted by any of their people."

Makoto rose, also expressing her trepidation by pacing, her long legs making short movements so as not to be carried across the floor too quickly. "That's all well and good, but how does this tie into our duty to the Princess?"

"She will need protection." Minako explained, eager for the change of topic. "The senshi are her personal guard."

"Protection?" Makoto asked with furrowed brows. "The Moon Kingdom is crumbling. There isn't a hostile threat left standing on any of the planets. What would she need protection from?"

"Ami-chan, show them."

The Mercurian looked to her leader and nodded before tentatively picking up a manila folder that rested on the side table next to her. She opened the folder, and careful not to spend too much time looking at the photos between her fingers, she displayed them to the others.

Makoto gasped. "What… what are those _things_?" She sat next to Ami, stunned.

Rei ceased her pacing and rolled her eyes in indifference, but when she looked down at the photo, her breath caught in her throat when she saw the nightmare images the photos had captured.

"Monsters." Minako said with a shrug. "We don't know what else to call them."

Rei was unable to tear her eyes away from the grainy photos, no doubt taken with a low-resolution surveillance camera. The forms of six ghoulish monsters crowded around the bruised and bloodied bodies of a woman and a child, possibly a mother and daughter.

"Monsters?" Makoto asked slowly. "Couldn't they just be people wearing masks?"

Minako shrugged. "Their corpses, or what was left of them after Ami-chan and I defeated them, were sent to the morgue." She paused then, and captured the Mercurian's distant gaze. "I can assure you, they weren't masks. They may look humanoid, but they are _not_ from here."

Makoto's fists clenched. "Kinmoku? Could they be attacking-"

"No." Minako said swiftly. "Our intelligence has ruled out that possibility."

"We have nothing they'd want." Ami said quietly. "Their solar system has been spared this fate. They have no motive."

The Jovian pulled her eyes from the grisly sight and straightened herself against the back of the couch. "Then it's our duty to protect the Princess from these things."

The Venusian nodded. "And anything else that would threaten her."

"The biggest threat to the Princess is _herself_."

The Martian's eerily calm statement drew incredulous looks from each of the three women. Minako swallowed audibly. "Rei?"

Rei turned her gaze from the base of the barren mountain range that ringed the basin of the Sea of Serenity and tried to ease her haunted expression. "Sorry." She said, mastering an expressionless mask once more. "It was… nothing."

But it wasn't nothing. That much was obvious. Rei frowned, and then surrendered her head to her palms, her eyes squinted shut as though she were in pain.

Minako hurried across the distance that separated them. Rei tensed under her concern, under that gentle touch that was becoming so familiar.

"Rei-"

And the way she spoke her _name_…

But the matter couldn't be pursued. The heavy, wooden door that led out into the main hallway swung open and the sound of heels rushing across the floor was heard.

A woman of average height and build with long, dark hair that fell as flat as her expression entered the antechamber. She had the mark of youth on her; barely of age at about sixteen years where the majority of her new guardians, with the exception of Ami, were two or three years older. Her simple, white gown gave her an eerie glow but it was the crescent mark on her forehead that indicated her lineage, and it didn't seem to the befit the scowl she wore on her lips.

"Princess." Ami quickly closed the folder to hide the photos before rising to her feet and bowing her head.

Minako was vaguely aware of a relieved sigh from Rei as she took a step away. The Venusian admonished herself for letting her attention waver from her charge, and she bowed her head towards her Princess in kind.

"Princess," Minako said. "The rest of your senshi have arrived. Jupiter and Mars are at your service."

Makoto dropped to a knee and averted her gaze. "Jupiter Makoto, at your service."

Rei frowned at the woman who was her Princess. She inclined her head in the slightest. "Mars Rei." She barked, ignoring Minako's scathing glare.

The Princess' strict expression softened. "Please," she said, and her voice seemed so soft for her earlier sternness, "Call me Serenity." She smiled indulgently at two of her warriors in particular. "I always have to remind Ami-chan and Minako-chan not to be so formal."

She walked forward then and clasped Makoto's hands in her own. "Please, rise." She said, and tugged upwards, fully aware that she wouldn't have been able to budge the tall warrior if she hadn't risen to her feet on her own accord.

Serenity smiled at Makoto and then flitted over to the other newcomer, and she was not so blind not to notice the hesitation the Martian displayed in clasping her outstretched hands.

"Serenity-san." Rei said with a brisk nod.

The Princess smiled distantly, pleased that the only order she'd given had been obeyed, but when she pulled away, Rei retracted her hands as if burnt.

"My mother, Queen Serenity, sends her regards," the Princess told her two new warriors, "that she can not see each of you immediately, though she is looking forward to meeting your acquaintances."

Serenity inclined her head then, as though she were through with them, and skirted towards Ami. She threw an eager arm around the smaller woman's shoulder. The Mercurian blushed and cast her gaze the floor as Serenity proceeded to speak to her as though they were the only two in the room.

"Ami-chan, I'm _so_ excited! "Mother has decided to include me in the planning discussions for our first meeting with the Earthlings! She says we'll all play important roles in diplomatic relations and she told me to choose an aide to attend the meetings with me. Will you come with me?"

Ami stiffened. "But would Minako-san not be a better choice? She isthe leader of your guard, after all."

Serenity smiled flatly and looked back over her shoulder. "Minako-chan, you don't mind, do you? We won't be making any really important decisions yet. This is just like… party planning right now."

The leader of the senshi smiled indulgently. "Of course not, Princess." She winced slightly when Serenity cast a scolding glance in her direction. "I mean, Serenity-san."

Serenity squealed; a short-lived, high-pitched cry, and then tugged on the long sleeves of Ami's shirt, leading her friend from the room. She barely spared the others a backwards glance in her departure, save for one unreadable look in Makoto's direction.

And then, the door swung shut quietly, and no amount of forced smiles or chuckles could ease the awkwardness in the room. Minako surrendered herself back into her seat with a long suffering sigh.

Makoto nearly bristled, but reminded herself who it was she was talking about. "What was that all about? Are those two…"

Minako let the obvious question hang in the air for some time: "Not really." She answered reluctantly. "It's… complicated."

Makoto's curious glare was immediate and demanding, but even Rei threw a sideways, interested glance, and Minako felt compelled to explain. "See, Mercurians aren't exactly the touchy-feely type, the way Lunarians or Venusians are."

Rei's amused snort drew the attention of both Makoto and Minako. In the short few days it had taken them to get from Mars to the Moon, Rei had learned first hand that Venusians had the propensity to touch. She'd also found that she was overcoming her aversion to physical contact much, much, easier than she would have ever imagined.

Minako narrowed her caramel eyes at Rei and finished her explanation. "So, based on those actions, I think Ami-chan thinks Serenity-san may like her as more than a friend, and she may be falling for her."

Makoto shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "But if that's not the case, shouldn't we tell Ami-chan so she doesn't get hurt?"

"Well… Ami-chan is a little touchy about her feelings, and I would never presume to tell the Princess she's doing something wrong. Besides," Minako crossed one leg over the other. "I make it a point not to meddle in other people's affairs."

"Could've fooled me." Rei mumbled under her breath.

Minako spun in her chair and caught Rei's gaze over her shoulder. "I've had just about enough of your snide comments."

The two women held a drawn out glare that was broken only by Makoto's resigned sigh. "On Jupiter," she said, "We have no problems with telling someone how we feel about them."

Rei huffed and crossed her arms and Makoto snarled at her reaction. "What's your problem? That's not how Martians express their feelings? How do _they_ do it then?"

Rei's dark gaze turned intense and she unwittingly turned to Minako. "If a Martian's fallen for you, you'll know by their actions alone."

Rei froze. She'd turned her frustrations on the wrong woman, hadn't she? And yet, she found herself asking, _'What am I getting myself into? With this kingdom? With this woman? And why can't I seem to stop myself?'_

With one, final, derisive snort, the Martian took to her heels and she stormed towards the door. She'd had enough of these people, enough of this place, enough of-

"Rei!"

The Martian stopped on the edges of her toes and looked back over her shoulder.

"Training is at oh-eight hundred hours sharp tomorrow morning."

Rei snarled at the woman who was her leader. She'd had enough of _her_, especially.

* * *

Author's Notes:

I found a _very_ big shoehorn to fit all that plot into the last scene, but now that all that is out of the way, the next chapter is action packed, so please stick with me.

I decided to go with the youma that looked like the 'Scream' ripoff youma that were featured towards the end of PGSM. More on that and why I'm not calling them youma yet later. Likewise, although Kinmoku and the outer planets weren't mentioned in PGSM, I'm going to draw some conclusions of my own and draw from the other Sailor Moon universes as well.

We are given very little of substance about the PGSM Silver Millennium. The only cold, hard fact that we either see, or are told about the surroundings, is that there was a crystal-like shield around the palace, the palace was very, very white, and that it was all destroyed in the end. And that's… about it. I've tried to draw some parallels between the senshi's past and current lives. In this chapter, the initial rivalry/mistrust between Rei and Makoto is evident, as is the underlying attraction between Rei and Minako, and Ami's shyness and tendency to cling to Serenity.

As to the deteriorating solar system, I caught a show awhile back that claimed that the planets actually held different orbits in the early history of the solar system, and that the gas giants were closer to the sun and that most of the planets moved around before settling into their current orbits. I took that approach, and had the Silver Millennium (or, the end of the Silver Millennium, by the start of the story), take place just as the planets are starting to lock into their new orbits, and as a result, the ecosystems that had once sustained life are slowly failing. Well, all of them except for Earth.

OOO

Preview, Chapter 3: My Kind of Sparring

"I'm sorry your first kiss wasn't so gentle." Venus said teasingly.

"My first…" Mars snorted. "You seriously think you were my first kiss? Don't' flatter yourself, Venus. I'm sure I could teach _you_ a thing or two."

"Is that so?" Venus grinned widely. "I won't forget you said that."

Mars frowned and took a moment to look at herself slowly, examining her strange new set of armor, seemingly identical to Venus' but for being red in color. Her hair had lengthened. She felt a metal band across her forehead. Trembling hands reached up to her neck, and suddenly, she spat. With a vicious tug, she ripped the choker off her neck and held it in a shaky palm.

"What is this, a _collar_!?" She threw the piece of red fabric to the ground violently and met her leader's eyes in defiance. "I may be bound to the Princess' service, but I do not _belong_ to her."


	3. Chapter 3

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 3: My Kind of Sparring  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

There was no night or day on the near side Moon. Even though the sky was black and the stars shone through the fragmented, crystalline ceiling of the geo dome, the combined light of the Earth and oftentimes the Sun beyond, kept the Moon in a state of muted day.

Yet even with the absence of darker skies, Rei's internal clock reminded her that it was too early to be training, and _far_ too early to have to deal with her Venusian commander.

Rei frowned at Minako when as she stepped onto the training grounds; a flat and dusty field behind the Palace, bordered on all sides by a tall wall that separated it from the sprawling cities on the other side of the boundary.

"You want me to _fight_ you?" Rei asked.

"Yes. How else would I asses your ability to perform in battle?" Minako flipped her caramel highlighted hair over a shoulder. She took a step forward, her dainty boot crushing the dry grass beneath her feet. "Surely, even Priestesses and acolytes of Mars receive some kind of martial training?"

"Of course they do," Rei answered in a huff. "But… I don't want to hurt you. You seem kind of… fragile."

"Fragile?" Minako's eyes narrowed. "Well, we'll just have to see about _that_."

Rei barely had the time to arch an eyebrow before Minako charged at her.

* * *

Jovians weren't necessarily known to be the most punctual race in the solar system, and with the palace walls receding at her back, Makoto had taken a little longer in arriving at the training field. Her pace, however, increased as she caught sight of their leader and the Martian sparring, and she unconsciously cracked her knuckles. It had been a long while since she'd experienced a good brawl.

* * *

Minako's charge brought her within striking distance and she landed a punch to Rei's stomach. But when she rounded for another, Rei caught her fist, deflected Minako's sense of balance, and with strong hands on Minako's upper arms, she hooked a foot behind her attacker's knee and dropped Minako to the ground.

* * *

Makoto let out a long, low whistle in appreciation of Rei's finely executed grapple, and the Mercurian watching on the sidelines spun on her heels.

"Makoto-san!" Ami choked, once again surprised at the tall women's ability to move in near complete silence.

* * *

When the dust cleared, Rei grinned at Minako. The Martian was knelt on one knee, Minako still pinned to ground by Rei's hands where they tightly pinched Minako's arms.

"You're not so fragile." Rei said gruffly, looking down at her commander.

"And I underestimated your abilities."

Rei released her hold on Minako and stood, offering the other woman a hand up. Minako granted her opponent a half smile in return, took the proffered hand, and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. She brushed dirt and grass off her back before they once again affected defensive stances and began to circle one another, each with a newfound level of respect.

* * *

"Are you ready to begin?" Ami asked Makoto.

"Ready?" The Jovian pointed a finger to the two sparring women, then to herself, and next, she surrendered a confused expression to Ami.

"I'll be your opponent." Ami said. "And don't underestimate me. You see where it got Minako-san."

When Ami grinned her shy little smile, Makoto found herself grinning from ear to ear in response to that irresistible gesture.

* * *

"Well, you've some skill at hand to hand combat." Minako grunted as her right hook was deflected by the Martian's forearm. She skittered forward on one leg and brought her knee up to meet Rei's gut. Only, Rei turned a hip at the last second, dodged behind Minako, and pulled her to the ground by the shoulders.

Once her breath had returned to her lungs, the leader of the senshi looked up to the amused Martian, standing above her with her arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

"Admit that I best you in it, then." Rei demanded coolly.

Minako's half smile widened. "I don't know. I think you just like getting me on my _back_."

Rei snorted derisively and dragged Minako to her feet.

* * *

Makoto had strength, but Ami had speed. As a result, the two women were rather unevenly matched.

"Hold still!" Makoto chuckled as she swung a fist at Ami, only to miss completely as the smaller woman dodged and skirted around the Jovian's backside. Ami landed a punch to Makoto's kidney area, but Makoto barely even winced from the contact.

Ami sighed. "I can't hold still any more than you can be hurt by my blows. Our strengths are incompatible."

"That's where you're wrong, Ami-chan."

"Eh?" Ami faltered in her methodical and measured pacing.

"Our strengths _compliment_ each other. In fact, I think if we were to train together regularly, we'd both greatly improve our skills."

"I think you're right, Makoto-san." Ami's tentative frown became an honest smile and she charged towards the pony-tailed woman with a newfound intensity.

* * *

Rei had quickly found that her opponent was very flexible, and the roundhouse kick that Minako aimed at her head hit its mark, the hard heel of the Venusian boot slamming into Rei's temple. In the muddled confusion of her head trauma, Rei skittered backwards and held her hands up to protect herself, all the while asking herself if she'd merely been distracted by Minako's long legs.

Minako took the opportunity to gloat, but did not press her advantage, allowing Rei to recover. "So you're _not_ invincible." She taunted.

"I had to allow you at least _one_ point." Rei shook her head and regained a proper defensive stance in response to Minako's offensive one.

"Oh? And you also seem to be very thick-headed." Minako dropped her amused expression and put her all into her next charge.

Once again, she found that running into Rei was like hitting a brick wall, and although the other woman was of only a slightly larger build, she was wrestled to the ground for a third time, this time with Rei straddling her thighs and pinning her arms to her sides.

"Tell me I best you in hand to hand combat." Rei demanded, smirking down at her.

"I admit defeat to no one." Minako growled, unable to get her mind off of the other woman's muscular thighs wrapped tightly around her waist.

Rei released Minako's arms. Splaying her fingers on either side of Minako's head, she leaned closer. "You're blushing," she said amusedly. "And here you accused _me_ of wanting to get you on the ground?"

Minako frowned sourly. Never had she had the tables turned on her in such a manner.

_Never_.

"Clearly, a religious sect would have a focus in self defense over offensive techniques. But how do you fare with weapons and your powers? You can't fight against those monsters that we found in your civilian form." Minako nearly snarled. "We'll see how smug you are when we spar as senshi, _Mars_."

* * *

"Ho!" Makoto exclaimed, both excited to finally block one of Ami's quick jabs and equally interested in the scene she caught out of the corner of her eye on the other end of the training field. "Now _that's_ my kind of sparring!"

Ami frowned and increased her speed, landing a punch to the Jovian's side. "Eyes on your opponent!" She barked, and she noted that her next, well-aimed punch finally caused Makoto to wince.

* * *

The woman between her legs began to glow with an unnatural golden light and Rei leapt off of Minako, scrambling to stand on shaking legs. When Minako pulled herself off the ground, she was no longer the dark haired Venusian, but a golden warrior resplendent in a ridiculously skimpy outfit. She was Venus.

"What are you waiting for?" Venus shouted. "Transform!"

Despite the immediacy of the challenge, Rei couldn't pull her attention away from those long, indecisively curly golden locks that cascaded down Venus' back. Minako's transformation hadn't seemed to alter her appearance very much, with the exception of her outfit and her hair, but while Rei had to admit that Minako was beautiful naturally, as the warrior Venus, she had a certain added _allure_ to her…

"Rei!"

The Martian snapped herself back to reality at her leader's scolding voice. "How?" Rei barked with fists balled at her sides. "How do I transform?"

"What do you mean you don't know how to transform?" Venus put her hands on her hips, her fingers splayed over top of a golden chain that circled her waist. "The bracelet you were given when you arrived provides you access to your powers." She explained.

Rei glanced down to the silver charms on her wrist. She frowned at the piece of jewelry that had been delivered by means of a palace guard. It had come finely wrapped, with a letter of apology from the Queen stating that she wished she could have given her daughter's guardian the trinket in person. The Martian stared at the bracelet to no avail.

Venus sighed. "Look, just concentrate, okay?"

"On what?"

"On your powers, of course. Your element is supposed to be fire, isn't it?"

Rei squinted her eyes shut. Some time passed. Her brow furrowed. Her fists clenched and unclenched. She nearly began to growl.

Venus canted her head and put her finger to her chin. "Maybe you need the opposite."

Rei opened her eyes. "Eh?"

"Stop thinking so hard, Rei."

"How am I supposed to do that?!"

"Start by being less _uptight_!"

"_Excuse_ me?"

Realizing that her words were having the opposite effect, the golden warrior took several brisk strides to close the distance between herself and Rei. "I guess I have no choice but to clear your mind _for you_."

Rei's eyes widened at the rapidly approaching Venusian, her expression caught somewhere between fear and bewilderment. "Minako, what are you-"

But she barely had time to question. Venus ducked inside Rei's defenses, splayed her fingers across Rei's cheeks, and pulled her lips to her own. Rei found herself surrendering to Venus' kiss, loosing touch of all reality.

And that's when she felt it; a piece of her that had been there all along, a fire flowing through her veins - so hot and scalding that at first, she thought the flames that rushed through her blood with an urgent need for release would consume her.

It was pure, unadulterated power that burned through her body, and it was _just_ as addictive as her commander's lips.

Venus released the Martian slower than she'd intended, only to find that Rei no longer stood in front of her, but Mars herself. And she was wholly unsurprised to find that she was just as interested in this crimson warrior as much as she was her civilian counterpart.

And when Mars slowly opened her eyes, so obviously dizzied and hung over from the surge of power, and maybe even from the kiss itself, Venus couldn't help but see the confusion that lingered in those dark eyes as absolutely adorable.

"I'm sorry your first kiss wasn't so gentle." Venus said teasingly.

"My first…" Mars snorted. "You seriously think you were my first kiss? Don't' flatter yourself, Venus. I'm sure I could teach _you_ a thing or two."

"Is that so?" Venus grinned widely. "I won't forget you said that."

Mars frowned and took a moment to look at herself slowly, examining her strange new set of armor, seemingly identical to Venus' but for being red in color. Her hair had lengthened. She felt a metal band; cool and smooth across her forehead. Trembling hands reached up to her neck, and suddenly, she spat. With a vicious tug, she ripped the choker off her neck and held it in a shaky palm.

"What is this, a _collar_!?" She violently threw the piece of red fabric to the ground and met her leader's eyes in defiance. "I may be bound to the Princess' service, but I do not _belong_ to her."

Venus stood unmoved, her arms crossed over her chest. "You can rip that _'collar'_ off now, but each time you tap into Mars' powers, it'll reappear."

"Then I'll tear it off each time."

"Forever?"

Mars scowled. "I'm here to fight for my people. The collar implies there is _one_ person I'm bound to. And I'll _continue_ to rip it off unless I deem someone worthy of my dedication and obedience."

Venus could only smolder under Mars' burning gaze. "Then, all things considered, I'm surprised you didn't kick off your heels and fight barefoot, too."

Mars took stock of the ridiculous red pumps on her feet. "Well, it's certainly not my style," she caught Venus' admiring gaze lingering on her legs and she grinned ferally. "But I think I'll make it work. I rather like what they do for me, after all."

The golden warrior raised a dark eyebrow and Mars smirked. The crimson warrior offered no warning as she lunged forward and engaged Venus in combat once again.

* * *

Ami and Makoto had long since abandoned the notion of sparring, and had surrendered instead to the show offered by Venus and Mars.

Makoto slapped Ami on the back as gently as a Jovian could. "So, did you awaken your powers that way, too?"

Ami stuttered slightly and began to blush. "No! I've been training alongside Venus for the past nine months." She paused then, and looked towards Makoto uncertainly, noting that she already wore her transformation bracelet. "Have you…"

Makoto chuckled. "Yeah. I've been practicing. Although I wasn't ready to leave my planet when the senshi were first called to service, my bracelet was sent to me so that I could learn my senshi skills until I was ready to leave Jupiter." She laughed merrily. "Though now I wish I hadn't. I wouldn't have minded having my powers awakened like _that_."

The pink blush that dusted Ami's cheeks turned a darker shade of crimson. "That was… quite unusual. Rei couldn't be found on Mars - Minako had to collect her personally. Perhaps it was just because Rei had never had the ability to access her senshi powers until now."

"Or perhaps she just likes Minako-san."

"Maa." Ami said thoughtfully, and then, taking stock of sparring match, she said amusedly, "I think you're just about up."

* * *

Mars had only just learned to form a ball of fire between her palms. Venus was testament to Mars' quick learning – the ends of her long, golden hair were singed already, and the golden warrior would have no more of it.

Unraveling the jeweled chain from around her waist, Venus attacked. The disc of dancing flames between Mars' gloved hands winked out of existence as her hands were torn away from each other and her arms were pulled tight against her sides. Venus centered her weight on her thighs and gave a firm tug on the end of her chain. Mars hit the ground, falling face first onto the hard packed dirt.

Mars groaned as she felt Venus' weight on top of her, her commander's knee relentlessly digging into the small of her back.

"You may do well with hand to hand combat, but I best you in weapons and powers. Looks like you have some work to do, _Mars_."

There was a long silence. The Martian went limp, submitting under the Venusian's dominance. She found herself wondering how long Venus would hold her down when she heard Ami's not so subtle prompt.

"Venus, Jupiter is up next."

"A… ah." Venus' voice was distant and awkward.

And just like that, the chain that held Mars' arms to her sides winked out of existence and the pressure of the other woman that was somehow simultaneously both painful and comforting was gone.

Mars picked herself up off the ground, distractedly patting the dust off her front as she eyed Ami relaying the findings of her sparring match with Makoto to Venus.

At length, Venus nodded. Ami took her leave as Makoto approached. The Jovian listened to words the Martian couldn't hear, and with a green-tinged glow, Makoto became Jupiter. Mars felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end from the errant electricity in the air before Jupiter and Venus engaged in each other in battle.

And not once did the leader of the senshi offer so much as a backwards glance at Mars.

"Jupiter is strong, but her tactics are undeveloped. This fight should end soon."

"Eh?" Mars looked up then. She had barely even noticed that Ami was standing beside her.

Venus and Jupiter traded several precursory blows - punches and kicks that were easily avoided in the case of the former or blocked in the case of the latter. Jupiter knew that Venus' focus was on senshi strength and weaponry, and so she called forth her powers.

A sparkling disc of lightening zipped past Venus, who ducked with more than enough time to avoid it. The Venusian's laugh was melodious. "An excellent power!" She complimented her opponent, and then lashed out with her chain. "We just need to work on your speed!"

Jupiter chuckled along with the other woman, but having watched Venus' match with Mars, she'd been prepared for that attack and summoned her weapon; a long halberd, the tip of which caught the chain of light effortlessly.

Venus whistled in appreciation and then smiled. "Well played, Jupiter, but don't presume to think that's the only trick I have up my sleeve."

Venus released her hold on her chain. Without her influence the weapon dematerialized and she was inside the Jovian's defenses faster than the taller woman could blink. In turn, she had summoned her chain of light once more; only this time it was held around Jupiter's throat.

Venus smiled widely. "Submit."

Jupiter released her halberd, useless once Venus had gotten within striking distance. "I yield!" She said merrily with no small amount of awe and respect in response to her commander's superior skill.

Mars frowned as she watched, one gloved hand forming a tight fist. _'How can they laugh so easily when all Minako and I do is argue? And why are they getting so _close_ to each other?'_

"Rei-san, are you alright?"

Rei pulled her fingers away from her lips, unaware that they had even lingered there where Venus had kissed her earlier. That hand joined its twin in a fist. "I'm fine." She barked, still glaring daggers at Jupiter.

But then, Venus stopped laughing and her wide smile fell into a white-lipped frown. The golden warrior raised her wrist to her mouth and spoke into her communicator. She nodded several times, her expression falling with every nod. Jupiter, close enough to hear the conversation, seemed to pale. Venus lowered her wrist back to her side slowly.

Finally, Venus rushed over to Mars and Mercury, and the crimson warrior was acutely aware that Venus seemed to hold her gaze the longest.

"The monsters." Venus trapped her lower lip between her teeth. "They're attacking."

* * *

Senshi strength fostered increased reflexes and speed and the protective walls of the Moon Palace - white granite with dark caramel flecks - was nothing but a milky blur as the four warriors skirted the narrow passage between the palace wall and the Tent Cities that lay beyond it.

Mercury had to struggle to keep pace with her leader, but knew it was necessary for her to do so, for Venus had a very valid concern.

"I don't know if Mars and Jupiter are ready to fight yet. Even though the monsters are easily defeated, they're dangerous when there are many of them."

Mars' wasn't far behind Venus' sprinting form and she let her displeasure be known. "I don't need this ridiculous outfit to fight _any_ kind of monster."

Jupiter released a bitter laugh. "That's one thing the Martian and I can agree on!"

"Just lead the way," Mars barked to her commander. "We'll take care of ourselves."

Venus seemed to size up her two new warriors. Finally, she nodded and then continued to sprint even faster.

They were a blur of gold, crimson, hunter, and cobalt. The four women leapt over rooftops and dashed down back alleys, all nearly too fast for the refugees that milled along the crowded streets to track their movements, and definitely too fast for the two newest senshi to really see or understand their strange, new surroundings.

In the middle of a crowded marketplace, Venus pulled to a skidding halt and her senshi followed suit. Wide eyes examined at least a dozen of the ghoulish creatures, ghosting over the dusty ground in long, black robes as though their feet were incorporeal. Chalky, white faces seemed frozen in soundless screams as they pursued the retreating forms of the refugees. Monsters and people alike scrambled into tight alleys and jumped over merchant stalls.

They were already too late to save some. Several bodies lay bruised and broken at the market's center, though whether those casualties resulted from the rapidly retreating refugees in their haste to escape the impromptu battlefield, or as a result of the monsters themselves was not immediately apparent.

But then, two of the monsters managed to catch a child that had fallen. Grabbing the blonde youth between them, the child screamed as though the very life was being sucked from his body. And it struck the senshi that perhaps… it was.

Mercury and Venus ran to save the child, but a disc of fire beat them to it and the two creatures were instantly incinerated by the flames of Mars. The child hit the ground, worse for wear and breathing heavily, but very much alive.

Venus turned back to Mars and nodded sharply in appreciation before turning to the next closest threat.

But that was the end of the Martian's usefulness. The sudden wave of instinct drained from her as she was overcome by a sudden darkness, and her unseeing eyes watched detachedly as her comrades hurried to engage the ghostly monsters.

It wasn't long before several of their robed forms lay smoking, electrocuted by Jupiter's lightening. Two more lay waterlogged and piecemeal, drowned and torn by Mercury's icy waters. Four more had been either strangled or sliced to pieces by Venus' wrath of light and metal.

And still, Mars stood numbly.

Venus caught her breath. Her watchful gaze darted across the upturned marketplace. "There should be one more-" her eyes narrowed, "Rei!"

Although Mars couldn't hear her commander, she was all too aware of the looming form of one of those menacing monsters as it stood before her. She felt its clawed hand dig into her shoulder, and then, there was brightness. The golden glow of a chain that had earlier held her in playful submission now wrapped itself around her attacker's middle before tensing… and then tearing the monster into two distinct, bloody, pieces.

And the spell that Mars had fallen under had been broken, and with it, her transformation. Before she knew it, Venus stood before her, fuming and irate.

"I thought you said you could take care of yourself!"

Rei flinched as Venus' hands tightened around her wounded shoulder, but she couldn't help but detect the concern in her leader's eyes that belied the anger in her voice. Rei was acutely aware of Mercury's curious gaze, and even more so, Jupiter's disdainful glare.

Venus' hands, as though reassured that the wound was not life-threatening, eased into a gentle touch, but Rei slapped that hesitant gesture aside viciously.

And then, confused and torn in entirely too many directions, Rei turned and ran from her comrades.

* * *

Author's note:

I hope the bouncing back and forth between duels in the first scene wasn't too confusing. It was a balancing act to write both sparring sessions into one scene.

Thanks for your continued reviews!

OOO

Preview, Chapter 4: Hypocrite

"Ne, Rei?" Minako asked quietly.

Rei tipped her head down slightly to catch Minako's gaze. "Hn?"

"This doesn't mean anything, you know."

Rei arched an eyebrow. "_What_ doesn't?"

Minako's smirk became a mischievous grin. Surely the moody Martian hadn't set her up on purpose? Just as she had at the sparring grounds, her fingers found Rei's cheeks, and she pulled the other woman into a kiss.

"_That."_ Minako said hoarsely. "It doesn't mean anything."

Rei snorted. "Sure it doesn't."


	4. Chapter 4

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 4: Hypocrite  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Fickle flora that required too much maintenance had long since died while untended weeds had grown rampant. Long, trailing vines sparse in flower but abundant in foliage twined through shrubs while low growing flowering plants reached out weakly beyond their garden borders. What had once been lush beds of manicured grasses were now sparse clumps of tall weeds scattered across hard packed dirt; their brittle seed heads swaying to and fro in a gentle breeze at the high altitude.

The rooftop garden high atop one of the many spires of the Moon Palace had been abandoned long ago, but it was perfect for the Martian's needs.

At the garden's center, in what had once been a circle of lush grass and had long since become waist-high weeds, Rei had stomped flat a small circle, revealing the dusty ground beneath, and had then chosen several large stones to create a small fire pit at the circle's center. There had been no shortage of things to burn; several small, half dead ornamental trees had provided her with ample firewood, and the grass itself had provided the perfect kindling.

Once her medium had been sent to crackling flames, she had smoothed her hands over her tattered, white acolyte's robes she much preferred over the Lunarian clothing that sat piled in the closet of the room she'd been given. Seating herself before the results of her hard work, she allowed herself to become thoroughly lost in it, surrendering to whatever visions deemed to find her and steering her consciousness towards the dark and dangerous presence that had captured her in the midst of battle the day before.

Sweat began to trickle down her brow and her legs had long since gone numb beneath her. She didn't even register the heat of the flames as they danced and grew before her, leaping outside of the stone pit she had created, reaching hungry, fiery arms towards her still form. Time became irrelevant as she surrendered herself to her powers.

* * *

It was a string of Venusian curses that shattered the relative silence. Unseen hands roughly pulled Rei away from the threatening fire before a frantic, booted foot stomped out the growing flames. Still, Rei remained motionless.

Crisis averted, Minako sucked her teeth noisily and cocked her hands on her hips, unsure if she was more irritated by the fact that Rei had started a fire on the Palace's roof, or by the fact that the damned woman still wasn't _looking_ at her. She ground a glowing ember under her heel restlessly.

"What the hell are you doing?" She barked with no small amount of vehemence. "First you go AWOL after that battle yesterday, and now you're setting the roof of the Palace on fire?"

Minako's eyes narrowed with the lack of an expected response and she sunk to her knees alongside Rei before tentatively resting her hands on the other woman's shoulders.

"Rei-"

_Cold. Dark. Monsters._

_Monsters?_

_Minako affected a defensive stance, only to realize she had no body in this strange, black place, and those ghoulish creatures she'd fought on several occasions only seemed to ghost right past her; unseeing and milling about in a frantic, undirected urgency._

_There was a scream; a tormented, anguished call of one imprisoned for all eternity, and it was accompanied by a hollow cackle. There was the sound of quiet, helpless sobs._

_And neither of those voices came from the monsters._

"The voices control them."

Rei's clarion voice sliced through the nightmare images, and Minako gasped when the vision cleared as suddenly as it had taken her.

Still catching her breath, Minako's hands still rested on Rei's shoulders. The Martian had finally met her gaze, though her attention span seemed to wander towards Minako's quivering lower lip from time to time. Rei might have long ago become accustomed to her strange powers, but it was no shock that Minako had been frightened.

"This is your… power?" Minako forced herself to slip back into her role as leader, mastering her wavering expression and straightening her posture. And then the questions began. "The monsters. Are they here? Are they attacking right now?"

"No. They're not here. What you saw is where they are," Rei caught Minako's impatient gaze, but continued at her own pace. "Though I do not know where that nightmare world is."

"Can you find it again?"

"With time, yes."

Only then did Minako notice the pulsing vein above Rei's right eye, the Martian's pale complexion, the hoarseness of her voice. The feat Rei had accomplished, the feat she had interrupted, had taken much out of the strong woman. Minako allowed her hands to drop from the Rei's shoulders. Slowly, her hands found Rei's lap and she was surprised that when she clasped Rei's hands in her own, the flighty Martian did not pull away from her touch.

"This is why you faltered in battle yesterday, isn't it?"

Rei hesitated for a long moment. "Yes. The darkness captured me. I've never felt an evil of this magnitude. I wanted to learn their signatures so that I could try to track them through the flame. With time, I may be able to use this ability to track their movements and anticipate attacks, even without the fire's help."

"As your leader, I need to know, can you use the flame for any other purposes?"

Minako felt Rei try to retract her hands. The Venusian held on to that wavering grip even tighter. Rei would not make eye contact. Her brow furrowed and her jaw tensed.

"Yes." Rei finally replied. "Sometimes, the fire grants me premonitions."

Minako wasn't sure if it was Rei's ashamed voice or the slight tremor she felt in Rei's tense hands, but she released one of Rei's hands. Slowly, Minako slid her fingers through Rei's feathered bangs before tracing her jaw line, and finally, Minako managed to coax that dark gaze back to her.

"I know your history, Rei. I understand that your family shunned you for your abilities," her voice was soft and she cupped Rei's cheek in the palm of her hand. "But don't presume to think that I would."

Rei's dark eyes cycled through emotions far too quickly for Minako to identify them, and finally, the Martian snorted. Predictably, in the wake of the raw emotions she was experiencing, she fell on the defensive. She was uncertain in the contradictive and fickle nature of the Venusian and she skirted away from Minako's touch, though they still sat closely together. Rei turned her torso away contritely and busied herself with seeing to the dying embers that crackled in the fire pit.

Minako accepted the feint gracefully and crossed her arms over her chest. "I wouldn't have expected an acolyte to have mastery over such a powerful skill."

"You of all people should know I wasn't just an ordinary acolyte." More than mildly irked that Minako had already seen to the fire's death, which left her without another acceptable diversion, Rei turned back to her commander. "What did you want with me, anyway?"

Minako chuckled, knowing that her flippant nature would only raise Rei's ire further. "I came to check on your injuries. We were worried when you just disappeared after yesterday's battle."

"The wound has healed. I'm fine. I _don't_ need your help."

Minako's light, teasing voice suddenly fell flat and her lips formed a thin, white line. "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Say one thing and mean another."

The Martian cut her dark, accusing gaze at the Venusian. "Hypocrite." She hissed.

And for a split second, Minako's confident half-smirk slipped. Never had anyone seen through her so easily, and the very thought that Rei _had,_ shook her to her core. And more than anything, she realized that she couldn't bear to see her own reflection in the Martian's dark eyes.

So instead, as much as to divert Rei's accusatory truth as to answer a question she had not yet asked herself, Minako shut her eyes and canted her head towards that irritating woman, catching Rei off guard for the second time in as many days.

The kiss was impulsive, uncertain, exploratory, and wholly exciting. Yet somehow, Rei got the distinct feeling that it might always be like that between them; on the edge of saying needed words but never finding the courage to do so.

"Come on, we have a meeting to get to." Minako stood, and pulled Rei to her feet.

"A meeting?" Rei's lips tugged upwards into a small smile despite herself.

"You would have known that if you hadn't stormed off yesterday." Minako tossed this information over her shoulder and began walking, heading back to the rooftop access door. She noted with no small amount of satisfaction that Rei followed along behind her, right on her heels.

"'Ch." The Martian cursed awkwardly and patted the dust off her robes. In her distraction, she nearly ran right into the other woman, who had pulled up short in front of her.

"Ne, Rei?"

Rei tipped her head down slightly to catch Minako's gaze. "Hn?"

"This doesn't mean anything, you know."

Rei arched an eyebrow. "_What_ doesn't?"

Minako's smirk became a mischievous grin. Surely the moody Martian hadn't set her up on purpose? Just as she had at the sparring grounds, her fingers found Rei's cheeks, and she pulled the other woman into a kiss.

"_That."_ Minako said hoarsely. "It doesn't mean anything."

Rei snorted. "Sure it doesn't."

Minako narrowed her eyes at the backhanded challenge, and when she claimed the Martian's lips once more, this time, she was nowhere as gentle…

and neither was Rei.

* * *

The Princess of the Moon collapsed into the welcome embrace of one of the chairs in the antechamber to her private room. She gave a cross look to her small harp that sat on the table, and then picked it up daintily. Holding the instrument to her chest, she plucked several strings, coaxing a few lines of a melancholy tune from the harp.

Ami took several steps away from the door leading to the hallway. She knew she could not rush Serenity when she was in such a state. "You've been practicing." She stated matter of factly.

Serenity's fingers fell from the strings and she looked at her closest friend slowly, as though she were deep in thought. "I get the strangest urges to play lately." She said, her lips turning down into a frown. "I used to like to play when I felt sad. Now I find I feel sad when I play."

Ami's mouth opened and closed. Unsure of the meaning behind Serenity's words and feeling awkward for being unable to console her saddened Princess, she took a few steps closer. She'd noted more often than not that her Princess seemed to suffer from dramatic mood swings, and she was becoming increasingly concerned for her friend.

But Serenity, as though unaware of the sudden sadness she'd slipped into, suddenly smiled. "Nevermind," she said brightly. "It was nothing."

Wringing her hands, Ami pleaded with her charge, all too eager to forget the awkward moment. "Princess, if we linger, we'll be late for our meeting with the rest of the senshi. It will be Mars and Jupiter's first time in our private meeting room, after all."

Serenity sighed. She leaned forward and sat her harp back on the table gently. "Ami-chan, don't you like me?" There was a distinct whine to her voice. Her dark gaze examined the high, white ceiling listlessly before she met Ami's worried gaze once more. "How many times do I have to ask you call me by my first name? _Especially_ you."

Ami offered a trembling smile and bowed her head slightly. "I'm sorry, Serenity-san."

The Princess glared at her closest friend and Ami blushed a soft pink.

"Serenity-_chan_!" Ami clarified, and this time, she chuckled softly, feeling more at ease. "Still… don't you think we ought to get going?"

"I don't know." Serenity held a hand before her and ticked a finger for each name she mentioned, "Venus has always been distant, Mars is so anti-social, and I _don't_ like the way Jupiter looks at you."

"E… eh?"

Serenity waved off her comment and rose from her chair. She ran her fingers down the front of her casual pants to smooth any wrinkles and marched past her stammering friend. She stopped by the door and turned back to Ami.

"You coming?" She called with a laugh. It was only a second's hesitation before the Mercurian rushed to swallow the distance between them as they exited the room. Still, as was customary for Ami, she lingered several steps behind her Princess and Serenity had to reach behind her and grab her hand so that they could walk side by side together.

"Ami-chan, I want to try something."

"Yes, Serenity-chan?"

Serenity swung their hands gently and she laced her fingers between Ami's. "Tell me, Ami-chan, have you ever kissed anyone?"

"Ki…ki…kiss?"

The Princess smiled brightly. "Me neither. Come on, why don't we try it!" She pulled Ami to an awkward halt in the empty hallway and stomped a foot for dramatic effect. "I'm tired of not being in the know."

"But I-"

Serenity hushed her closest friend with her soft lips. It was chaste, awkward, a simple, closed mouth kiss. It lasted only several seconds. Still, Ami was slow to open her dark eyes when Serenity pulled away.

"Hmm." Serenity pouted distantly. "I don't see what the big deal is. It wasn't _that_ great, was it?"

'_It was wonderful.'_ Ami thought wistfully. Still, she knew it wasn't the crimson blush that colored her cheeks or the goofy smile that tugged at her lips that would hurt in the end…

"I suppose you're right, Serenity-chan. It was… no big deal."

…No. Somehow, Ami knew, it would be her feelings.

* * *

Makoto navigated the curved streets of the city outside of the Moon Palace. The wealthy locale had traditionally been the homes of nobles and the wealthy, but with the influx of refugees from around the solar system, quarters had become cramped when the Lunarians had moved inward to make room for the newcomers forced from their planets. Lower level shops served dual duties as both storefronts and living quarters. Vendors hawking wares from far away places crammed the streets, eagerly undercutting each other to make enough money as the scales of supply and demand teetered precariously.

Makoto turned sideways to avoid collision with a stream of Lunarians, knowing that although space was at a premium here, from what little she'd been able to glean from the Tent Cities during the battle the day before, many refugees fared far worse conditions on the other side of the old city's walls. At least this place had proper buildings.

A continuing theme, she had found as she explored further, were plants. Flowering trees, lush vines, and greenery of all shapes and sizes were planted everywhere, sometimes haphazardly. A ghost of a smile touched her lips as she remembered that Ami had told her that the abundant plant life here was less for aesthetic value and more to ease the burden of the geo-dome's super computers and the air control system that struggled to maintain enough oxygen for the constantly growing population.

"An urban jungle." Makoto sighed beneath her breath, her thoughts torn between the Mercurian that thought had led her to, and her new home. She had to admit that although the Moon was a far cry from the natural rainforests of her home planet, it still managed to have a homey feel.

She smiled distantly. "I could get used to this." Her smile broadened as she caught sight of a young Venusian woman, not too dissimilar in appearance from her commander, a street entertainer resplendent in far too little clothing. "I could get _very_ used to this."

She forced herself to focus on the task at hand. Fingering a small scrap of paper between her fingers, she confirmed the address of the building she had come to stand before. She frowned slightly, slowly sounding out the names in Lunarian Common.

"Crown Karaoke?"

"You've found the right place!"

Makoto recognized the voice and gentle slap on her back as belonging to her leader, and she turned and bowed her head slightly in respect. "Minako-san!"

Her cheerful voice, however, devolved into a low growl when she saw the woman who stood close to her commander's side. She grinned at Rei ferally. "So you _didn't_ run away."

The Martian nearly snarled. "I've never run away from _anything_."

"Ladies." Their commander held out a warning hand. Makoto snorted and turned away from Rei. The Martian glared coldly at the Jovian.

"Rei is learning to use her spiritual powers to track the movements of the monsters we fought. It's why she faltered yesterday, Makoto."

"There's no excuse for distraction in battle."

"Her skills may well save lives one day, Jupiter. Perhaps _yours_."

At the sound of her commander's sharp recrimination, Makoto cowed her head in deference. She found herself thoroughly relieved that although Minako could easily dole out reprimands, she was also quick to forgive, and Makoto felt that friendly hand on her shoulder once more.

"Shall we go in? Ami-chan and Serenity-san have probably already started without us." Minako said cheerfully.

"Oh yes, the _meeting_." Rei said flatly.

Minako spun again and this time, her ire was directed at her other subordinate. "Do not confuse me, Rei. The Princess is happy to feel like she's being included in her senshi's _meetings_, but rarely do we speak of matters of importance around her. There's no need to worry her with talk of the monsters we've encountered. Let her be content to plan her parties with the Earthlings and to include us as her friends."

Although her words were sharp and serious, there was no trace of dislike or distrust for her Princess in the Venusian's voice; only concern and leadership. Despite their differences, both Makoto and Rei nodded their understanding of the ground rules laid before them.

With one hand on the Jovian's shoulder, and another on the small of the Martian's back, Minako pushed the two women forward into the Crown. The automatic doors slid open for them and the two newcomers were pushed out of the bustle of the city and into the quiet comforts of a small reception area.

A tall, slim man dressed in business casual clothes seemed to try to replace the commotion of the street outside. His smile was bright and charming as he skittered around his booth.

"Hello! And welcome to Crown…" His voice seemed to catch in his throat then, his brown eyes widening, and when coupled with the short, spiky hair that boasted perhaps a bit too much gel, he looked quite youthful, not to mention attractive to the woman he'd laid his eyes on.

Makoto shifted on her feet, not entirely uncomfortable under the clerk's blatant scrutiny, and offered him a shy smile in response. "Hi." She said quietly.

Rei snorted and mumbled under her breath. "She could be so brazen with her interest in Ami-san, and yet blush like a little girl with-"

"Shut it, Rei." Makoto snapped, "I don't even know-"

Minako stepped between the two bristling women and waved brightly to the spiky-haired clerk. "Motoki-san!"

"Ah! Minako-chan!" Motoki seemed all too eager to seize the distraction. "Ami-chan and Usagi-chan are already waiting for you." He raised an eyebrow at the newcomers. "These must be friends of yours?"

"Yes, this is… Kino Makoto and… Hino Rei."

Rei grimaced, somehow perturbed that her commander could fabricate aliases so easily while maintaining that sickly sweet voice. In the week or so that she'd known Minako, she'd seen the stern leader, the flirtatious tease, the competitive warrior, the capricious child, and now, the diplomatic leader. Even as Rei took note of the new alias, she found herself wondering how many other masks the Venusian had at her disposal. Remembering her place, she nodded to the clerk sourly, but found that his attention had already returned to where it first wandered.

"Kino Makoto-chan," he said fondly, smiling brightly. "You must be as good a singer as Minako-chan if you're in her company."

Minako hid a tinny laugh behind her hand. "Oh, Motoki-san, you make me sound like a regular at the karaoke competitions."

"Everyone knows the talents of the brilliant Aino Minako-chan!" Motoki frowned. "You really _should_ pursue a career in singing, you know?"

Minako's smile slid slowly. "Unfortunately, I have… other responsibilities to attend to."

"Of course." Motoki said reassuringly. He scampered back to his booth and made a note atop a stack of papers. "I'll be sure to grant your friends here the same access as… Minako-chan? Makoto-chan?"

The clerk looked down the hallway. Finding it empty, he canted his head in confusion.

* * *

Rei was the last to enter the room and she found herself wondering if Motoki had seen the door disappear and take the form of a solid wall once it shut behind her, or if it was all part of the power and mysticism that seemed to surround the royal family.

"This place is called _Crown_. Pretty witty, huh?"

It took Makoto a moment to realize that the animated woman dressed in common, Lunarian street clothes was actually their Princess, and she nodded respectfully. "Ah. Secret meetings in a karaoke joint? How very clever of you, Serenity-chan."

Minako nodded and smiled indulgently. "The Princess is only allowed to come here with an escort, guarded and disguised always. She has been _very_ responsible about protecting her identity outside the palace walls."

The Princess beamed at the praise the leader of her senshi afforded her. Showing off her street clothes, she grabbed a wide brimmed hat that sat on the table and placed it low over her eyes. "I go by Usagi outside the Palace walls." She said matter of factly. "It's fun to go incognito, but I think my peoples would be only too happy to see me among them if I weren't to disguise myself."

"Of course they would, Serenity-chan." Minako's quiet chuckle fell flat and the spacious room devolved into an awkward silence.

Ami set her drink on the table top, but with slightly shaky hands, she made more noise on the hard surface than she'd intended. She went stiff when she felt Makoto's gaze turn towards her for the first time that day. While she'd been more than comfortable in Makoto's presence since she'd met the other woman nearly a week ago, she realized then that while in Serenity's presence, it was very difficult to divide her attention between the two of them.

Rei only added to the tension in the room. Slowly, she walked around the table in the room's center, dragging the tips of her fingers over the back of each chair; orange, red, green, the blue chair was taken by Ami, and the pink one by their Princess. She snorted derisively.

"Color-coded chairs? How old are we again?"

"Rei!" Minako scolded her subordinate but Serenity stood before the leader of her senshi could offer further recrimination.

Serenity approached Rei slowly. Her lips turned upwards into a hesitant smile. The chairs had been her idea, but instead of admonishing her least socially adept warrior, she offered what was, for all intents and purposes, an olive branch.

The Martian looked questioningly at the strange, metallic device her Princess held before her. "What is _this_?" She asked, the mistrustful edge to her voice losing ground to her growing curiosity.

"It's a microphone, silly." Serenity said with an indulging smile. "Have you never done karaoke before?"

"Karaoke?"

Minako rolled her eyes. "She's of a _barbarian planet_, Serenity-chan. Of course she's never sung karaoke."

"Singing? I don't sing." Rei ignored Minako's backhanded comment and pushed the microphone into the Venusian's hands before turning to that familiar caramel gaze. "This seems right up _your_ alley. You're easily captured by bright, shiny things, aren't you?"

"What can I say?" Minako's voice was flat, but she batted her eyes coyly. "I'm a true Venusian at heart."

"Or maybe you're just easily amused."

"Hey!" Minako didn't quite manage to keep a chuckle from surfacing. Despite the ferocity in their voices, their barbs had been issued lightheartedly, forming a pattern of mutual exchange that was quickly becoming familiar between the two willful women, and seemed to be slowly pulling the reclusive Martian from her shell.

Even the Princess afforded the two women some semblance of a smile, that is, until she remembered her surroundings. Suddenly, Minako found the microphone being pulled from her hands, and her gaze was forcibly pulled from Rei to her Princess.

"Minako-chan, sing with me?"

Minako faltered for a moment before she found another target to deflect the task to. "Makoto-san, you look like you want to give it a try?"

Makoto slammed the songbook shut a little harder than she'd intended. "Me?" She asked, feigning disinterest, but Serenity had already thrown slim arms around her and began dragging her onto the raised stage.

With Serenity distracted by Makoto, Minako turned back to find Rei, only to see that she had retreated to a couch in the far end of the room, seeking to opt out of the exercise along with Ami.

"Come on, Minako-chan! The three of us can sing together!"

A plastic smile found its way to Minako's lips. Casting another sideways glance at Rei, she reluctantly joined Serenity and Makoto, and began to sing along.

From the couch on the other end of the room, Ami tapped a foot to the canned beat unconsciously. She carefully leant closer to Rei, cautious so as not to encroach her boundaries in too threatening a manner. "Rei-san?" She asked tentatively.

"Yes."

"I understand if you don't want to be friends with us."

Ami's quietly whispered words brought a look of surprise to Rei's face, but the Mercurian forged forward, cutting off whatever response Rei might have been considering. The small woman's fingers fidgeted in her lap. "I felt the same way when I first got here. But then, I met _her_."

Rei took a moment to examine Ami and she couldn't decide if her dark gaze was directed at Serenity or at Makoto. She chose to remain silent, and Ami continued.

"It's difficult, because everyone here is so different, and as a result of the strain that the refugees place on this small satellite, tensions run high." Ami paused then, slowly measuring the weight of her words. "But perhaps… perhaps, even if we're not friends, we can at least work together as senshi, Rei-san."

Ami's eyes; dark brown with an edge of the deepest blue, turned to Rei then, and the Martian couldn't help but offer her the smallest of smiles. In Ami, she knew she'd found a similar soul, and she was thankful for her display of strength and wisdom.

"I pledged my allegiance to her." Rei said, her gaze turning to their Princess. Her next words were so quietly spoken that they were nearly lost in the music that filled the room. "And I promised to protect her."

Ami raised a delicate eyebrow as Rei's dark gaze shifted ever so slightly to Minako who stood at Serenity's side. Unaware of the intensity of the gaze trained on her, Minako poured her heart out to the microphone in her hands, surrendering easily to the song's moment, her voice more than living up to the reputation Motoki had alluded to.

Rei's eyes finally narrowed, though she did not avert her gaze from the object of her thoughts. "Perhaps, one day, I can call the rest of you friends, too."

She sighed then, and collapsed back into the softness of the couch. She also knew that in that moment, she had given herself away.

Ami's acute observation skills had taken note of the traces of exhaustion Rei had skillfully kept hidden. Before Ami could express her concern, Rei stood, the slightest of tremors evident in her shaky legs. Her time spent in front of the flames had taken much out of her, and she was in desperate need of rest. She only hoped that, because nothing of importance would come from this _meeting_, she could be relatively certain that she would be only marginally reprimanded by her commander the next morning.

And as Rei took her leave, she felt Minako's critical gaze follow her as she exited through that magical door.

* * *

Author's notes:

PGSM references abound. Crown, Minako's singing ability, the scene between Ami and Rei about friendship, and the continued hostility between Rei and Makoto. It was also a strong message in PGSM about the five friends trusting and sharing with one another, and it seems that in the past, this was just as difficult for them to accomplish. Also of note, the Serenity of the past and the Usagi of the present are two distinctly different people. It was even mentioned in PGSM, that Serenity had been cold and mean, thinking only of Endymion.

Thanks to everyone for your continued reviews and messages!

OOO

Preview, Chapter 5: Mutual Combatant, Sometimes Ally

"You left Crown early yesterday. Do you always get your panties in a bunch during social situations? It seems to be becoming a habit." Minako's voice was a taunting purr and her body pressed intimately close to her subordinate – close, but not quite touching – and she smiled in satisfaction as Rei tried to keep from squirming. Her fingers brushed Rei's side as she raised a hand to push her caramel highlighted bangs behind her ear.

She winked brazenly and Rei narrowed her eyes in a gesture that would have sent most running.

Minako remained unaffected.

"Karaoke isn't my thing." Rei's frowning lips turned upwards into a smirk, a play for the upper hand. "Why? What's the problem? Did you miss me that terribly?"

Minako's half-smile faltered. "Maybe I did."

The space between their guarded expressions, both a mere inch and an endless eternity, slowly lessened. Minako found herself canting her head to the right as Rei came at her from the left.


	5. Chapter 5

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 5: Mutual Combatant, Sometimes Ally  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Her hand paused on the cool, silver handle of the royal dining hall's door, and Rei froze.

It was the warm breath oh her neck – the not quite there touch of her commander who had snuck up on her. It wasn't the first time Minako's presence had gone undetected by the cautious Martian, and the very fact made her growl.

"You left Crown early yesterday. Do you always get your panties in a bunch during social situations? It seems to be becoming a habit." Minako's voice was a taunting purr and her body pressed intimately close to her subordinate – close, but not quite touching – and she smiled in satisfaction as Rei tried to keep from squirming. Her fingers brushed Rei's side as she raised a hand to push her own caramel highlighted bangs behind an ear.

She winked brazenly and Rei narrowed her eyes in a gesture that would have sent most running.

Minako remained unaffected.

"Karaoke isn't my thing." Rei's frown turned upwards into a smirk, a play for the upper hand. "Why? What's the problem? Did you miss me that terribly?"

Minako's half-smile faltered. "Maybe I did."

The space between their guarded expressions, both a mere inch and an endless eternity, slowly lessened. Minako found herself canting her head to the right as Rei came at her from the left.

* * *

The distinct sound of fine china atop a metal tray clattered down the hallway. When Makoto turned the corner, a tray full of various foods piled precariously on the tray's ornate surface, she became aware of the hasty sounds of rapid scuffling, and she was surprised to find her commander and the Martian far apart on either side of the dining room's doors, smoldering each other with intent glares.

The Jovian paused between them hesitantly.

"What." Rei finally snapped her gaze to Makoto.

"Could you, uh… open the door?" Makoto asked awkwardly, looking down at her tray to indicate that both her hands were full.

This seemed to shake their leader from her trance. With an air of dismissal, Minako tugged at the waist of her light coat and hurried to swing the door open. Avoiding each other's gazes, both she and Rei followed Makoto inside wordlessly.

The Jovian nodded respectively to her Princess who sat at the head of a large, wooden table, and she couldn't help but smile widely at Ami. It didn't go unnoticed to Makoto that Ami sat directly at Serenity's right hand side, her eyes shining at whatever secrets the two women shared.

'_How can I compete with the Princess of the Moon Kingdom?'_

Makoto shook the thought and boldly approached the two women. Setting the tray of overflowing delicacies between them, she smiled brightly. "Jovian breakfast foods!" She cast a sideways glance to their place settings; their plates already filled with ready made, standard Lunarian fare selected from the choices laid across the center of the table.

"I hope you don't mind, Princess… Serenity-chan. I know your palace chefs are excellent cooks, and are much more experienced than me, but I wanted to share some of my culture with my friends."

Ami made a small sound. "You made all of this?" Her eyes widened further. "You can _cook_?"

Makoto wasn't sure how to interpret the barrage of questions. She bristled slightly, her Jovian masculinity showing through her feminine demeanor. "Of course I can cook! How would one eat otherwise?"

Ami backpedaled slightly, having to crane her head to catch the tall woman's gaze. "On Mercury, we have machines that replicate our foods. Using atomic energy, food is recreated to look and taste the same while still maintaining the same nutritional value of-"

"It's not the _same_." Makoto snorted. "On Jupiter, every man, woman, and child learns to hunt, cook, and set up camp on their own."

"Segregation of duties is the Mercurian design."

Makoto to laughed at the very idea. "Segregation of duties? You'd never last a _day_ in a Jovian jungle!" Her warm laugh caught in her throat and she paused then. Resting her arm on the back of Ami's chair, she leaned in close. "I've got an idea. I'll _bet_ you that my homemade foods are tastier than your replicated ones."

"Bet?" Ami asked, and her blue-tinged eyes held a glimmer of mischief that made Makoto visibly shiver. "You'd pit a Mercurian in a bet?"

Makoto stood tall and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm pretty confident in my abilities."

"Maa." Ami politely raised her fork and examined the dishes on the tray at her left arm. "Well then, Makoto-san, I accept your challenge."

As Makoto both beamed brightly and blushed under the attention, the Princess of the Moon Kingdom watched the exchange between the two in earnest with an unreadable expression.

It became quickly apparent that Ami might loose her bet, for each new dish she sampled brought forth another quiet and polite exclamation. Eventually, even Serenity eventually abandoned her cautious nature, and dug into the delicacies with more gusto than Ami.

"Well, I guess there's some truth to that old adage," Minako said casually from the Princess' left.

"And what adage would that be?" Next to her commander, Rei pulled her chair closer to the table's edge and reached for the serving utensils of a bowl in front of her.

Minako smiled sweetly. "That the way to a woman's heart is through her stomach." Examining her dining companion, she scrunched her nose. "Though you may be immune to such a path to love."

Several slices of seasoned potatoes tumbled onto Rei's plate and she looked to Minako with a sour expression. "Excuse me?"

"Potatoes." Minako said with no small amount of distaste. "They're famine-food." She bypassed the bland vegetable and reached for a bowl of exotic fruits instead.

Rei turned her nose up at her commander. "It may be the standard fare that I'm accustomed to eating given my simple way of life, but it would do you good to remember that although there may not yet be a shortage of supplies on the Moon, with all the refugees you harbor here, even _you_ might have to eat… _famine-food _at some point in your sheltered life."

"But… _potatoes_?"

The Martian balked. "And you're the _leader_ of this outfit?"

Rei frowned then, though she wasn't sure if the haughty gesture was borne out of righteousness or as a result of the wounded expression her mutual combatant and sometimes ally wore. The only thing that she did know was that, proverbial panties in a bunch or not, she needed some space away from Minako.

Rei stood then, the legs of her chair loud against the marble floor, and she headed for the door.

Minako watched the Martian's departing form with narrowed eyes_. 'What is it with this woman that she can make me completely rethink _everything_?' _

The next thing she knew, Minako was pushing away her rich breakfast and leaping to her feet, regardless of the stares of her friends.

"Rei, wait!" She called, even after the Martian had shut the door behind her. Unperturbed, Minako swung the door open and rushed after the retreating woman. "I have something I want to show you. Rei!"

As the dining room doors swung shut behind Minako, Serenity shrugged, and beat Ami to the last spoonful of a particularly delectable Jovian side dish.

* * *

Rei's needed space just wasn't in her cards, apparently. Minako hurried to catch up to her, the patter of her boots hurrying across the marble floor, and Rei couldn't help but wonder if there weren't something else she needed entirely.

"Is it commonplace for a leader to chase after her subordinates like this?" There was less malice to her voice than she'd expected but Rei shrank further given her commander's recriminating glare.

"I really did have something to show you." Minako said quietly.

Rei winced. It was hard to learn the rules in their game of 'snipe at each other one moment and be each other's long lost other half the next'; especially when the rules were always changing at the Venusians' capricious whims.

True to that thought, Minako was smiling once more, that devil-may-care glint back in her caramel eyes, and Rei suddenly found herself being dragged down the hall bodily, and she noticed that despite their rank and title among the royal hierarchy, they were not immune to the curious glares of servant girls and nobles alike.

It wasn't long, perhaps several minutes and a few floors down until they reached the ground level. The uniform marble and granite floors and walls blended into one another in an endless stream of white monotony – an empty flatness that seemed to echo the very aura of the Palace itself, a manufactured rigidity that belied an underlying secret that might not be as pleasant to gaze upon.

Eventually, that endless white gave way to limestone and wood hallways, and despite her lack of knowledge of the Moon Palace's history, Rei understood that she was in a section of the compound built before the times of the Silver Millennium. In these lonely corridors of dark walls and low ceilings, the very air seemed to resonate with a power all its own; ancient and hidden and not at all comfortable to anyone who might be able to sense it.

But Rei had no time to dwell on the niggling feeling that teased the edge of her consciousness. The next thing she knew, Minako had dragged her through a door and into a room. It was small, no larger than a horse's stall, and the walls were built of the same limestone and wood. The space's only adornment was a small window that faced another exterior wall of the Palace and the room was empty with no furniture to speak of. There was one, single point of interest in the square space, and that was a hearth and mantle that stretched along the far wall.

Her hands behind her back, Minako sauntered towards the small window lazily. "I thought this would be a perfect place for you to track the monsters."

She watched the Martian critically; the way Rei paced alongside the hearth, her fingers reaching down to brush at the blackened soot along the curved opening of the firebox, the way Rei's sooty fingers trailed over the rough faces of a neat pile of cut and seasoned hardwood logs.

"I thought this would better suit your needs." Minako said matter of factly. "Here, you'll be better protected, there's easy access to fire extinguishers, there's-" she paused, seeing that none of it was getting through to the Martian, "well, anyway, I figured the firebox was large enough to keep you out of trouble." She said coyly. "Since you nearly burned down the palace from the top down the last time."

Rei turned slowly, her lips a thin, white line. "You had all of this… prepared for me?"

"Yeah." Minako smiled a toothy grin. "Isn't it great?"

Rei frowned sourly and shook her head. "No. This is completely unsuitable."

"Wha-"

But Minako had no time to question the troubled Martian, for she found herself being forcibly dragged out of the room in much the same way she had dragged Rei into it.

* * *

The moment she transformed and stepped onto the sparring grounds, Mercury collapsed to her knees, panting. "I yield!"

"Huh?" Jupiter halted her effort to summon her halberd into existence. "But we haven't even started yet!"

"I know, but I can't move!" Mercury laughed weakly. "I'm too stuffed from breakfast, no thanks to your delicious cooking!"

Jupiter blushed faintly. "Was it really… delicious?"

"Of course it was, Makoto-san." Mercury blushed that her praise would be taken to heart so thoroughly.

"Then, did I win the bet?" Jupiter asked cockily.

"Win the bet?" Mercury seemed to consider this for a moment. A half smile tugged at her lips. "I don't know about _that_. You stated that the bet was between your cooking and my replicated foods. I believe I'll need some more analysis to come to a proper conclusion."

"A fine excuse to get me to keep cooking for you," Jupiter said coyly. "Although we haven't discussed our terms should you lose our bet."

"Terms?" Mercury met Jupiter's mischievous gaze. "And just what would you have in mind should I lose?"

"Oh, I don't know…" Jupiter arched an eyebrow, "I'm sure I'll think of _something._"

The dainty warrior turned a unique shade of crimson, and with a hearty laugh, Jupiter stopped toying with Mercury and dropped the subject.

With a groan and a pat to her stomach, Mercury detransformed back to her civilian persona and Jupiter found herself wondering if the just-past-shoulder length black hair suited Ami better than the short blue locks suited Mercury.

Ami patted her tummy one more time for good measure. "I know Minako-san wants us to spar to develop our skills but… I'll have to wait until I'm less full."

Enveloped in a green-tinged glow, Jupiter became Makoto. "Hmm. Don't get me wrong, I have the utmost respect for Minako-san, but I assumed she'd be out here sparring with us."

"Apparently, there was something more important that she had to do with Rei-san."

Makoto looked to Ami's carefully blank expression and could only nod her agreement.

Finally, Ami smiled sweetly and pulled herself to her feet. "You really look up to Minako-san, don't you?"

"Ah." The soft blush returned to Makoto's cheeks. "Minako-san is very strong, and makes for a good leader. I respect that." She paused for a moment and scratched at the back of her neck. "But I also heard that she endures a struggle similar to mine."

"Eh?" Ami asked.

Makoto flipped her low ponytail over a shoulder. "Both she and I have a point to prove to our families."

"Your families?"

"Un. You see… although Jovian women are as capable as their male counterparts, the women of my culture have little say in politics. The Jovian nature is very chauvinistic."

"Makoto-san-"

"I don't know Minako-san's whole story, but I know that we both want to show our families and our people what it means to be strong women, and rise above our cultural stereotypes." She blushed then, and looked down at her hands. "I guess it sounds pretty foolish. I mean, Jupiter's culture hangs on such an uncertain balance. Most of the ruling family has decided to die with the planet…" she trailed off, and finally spat bitterly. "I escaped from my family to lead a more traditional existence. Out among the nomads, I found a different outlook on life."

"Makoto-san," Ami's gentle voice earned her the Jovian's eye contact. "Your planet may be doomed, but you can still affect change with those of your people who escaped to the Moon to find refuge." Makoto offered the beginnings of a smile, and Ami returned it brightly. "You have to start somewhere, don't you? Where better to start?"

Makoto chuckled. "I wonder if this is how Minako-san felt when she came to the Moon as well." Her gaze was pulled back to the edge of the tent city in the distance. "I'm truly in awe of her."

Ami smiled sweetly. "Even the Princess has a certain amount of awe for Minako-san."

"The Princess…" Makoto paused. "You two are really close, huh?"

"Yes." Ami's gaze shifted downwards suddenly, though she had to ask herself what reason she had to feel… ashamed? Avoidant? As though she was somehow cheating her newfound friend? She couldn't begin to understand the strange conflict. All she could do was avoid it entirely by stating the facts.

"I've been on the Moon for nearly a year." Ami said distantly as she slowly headed towards the dappled shade of a small ornamental tree at the edge of the grass line. "When the atmosphere began to fail on Mercury, it happened very quickly, and we were forced to evacuate."

Folding her legs underneath her, Ami sat down in the shade and Makoto joined her. There was silence for a long moment before Ami continued.

"I lived in the Tent Cities for some time. It was hard… seeing my peoples as they vied for space and resources, my own family sleeping in tents on the muddy ocean basin." She smiled wistfully. "But then, I was told I would be a senshi.

"I was upset, at first," Ami studied her hands thoroughly. "Because my path had already been laid out before me."

"Your path?" Makoto asked.

Ami nodded. "On Mercury, children take standardized tests to determine the career path they should pursue. I wanted to be a doctor. Like my mother. I spent the majority of my life studying medicine in order to follow in her footsteps. And when that opportunity was taken away from me, I wanted to resent the Princess.

"But then… I _met_ _her_, and now… now I don't know what's worse, the guilt I feel that I had wanted to hate Serenity, or the guilt I feel over how quickly I forgot about my peoples and my family, so long as I was by her side."

The self recrimination was evident in Ami's voice and it caused Makoto to cringe. Ami met Makoto's concerned, chocolate eyes then, and she colored deeply. "I'm sorry," Ami looked away. "I've said too much."

"No more than I've said." Makoto shook her head, though now she supposed she understood the stereotype that once one has befriended a Mercurian, their closed-off natures were in fact quite the opposite. She may have been disheartened to hear such candid words from the object of her affection, but at least there was one thing that made her feel better.

"Ami-chan?" Makoto twirled an end of a long stem of grass between her fingers, its heavy seed head bowing away from her. She caught Ami's questioning gaze and she forced a smile for her sake.

"Sometimes, we do unreasonable things in the name of love."

"Makoto-san?" Ami reached a hand to her companion, but Makoto brushed off her touch.

The Jovian pulled herself to her feet, her gaze lingering at the edge of the Palace's walls and the tent cities beyond that border. It was in her nature to tell Ami how she felt about her, but the others had implied that she use caution, and she would follow their unspoken directive.

For now, she would keep her feelings to herself.

But she would _not_ give up.

She smiled down at Ami. "Wha'dya say we go for a walk? Settle your stomach so we can spar already."

Ami smiled and rose to her feet. "I'd like that, Makoto-san."

* * *

The access door to the abandoned rooftop garden swung closed and latched a definite finality. At one end of the circle of trodden grass, Rei turned to her Venusian in tow.

"This will be our place." She backpedaled slightly. "I mean, _my_ place to do fire readings." She released a measured breath and pointedly avoided eye contact with Minako, but her brow knitted then and she knew she owed her commander an explanation.

"The room you prepared was no doubt beautiful and useful, but out here, in the open, away from the energies of the Palace and closer to what little of the natural world is left in this place, I can use my powers to the best of my abilities."

Minako canted her head. "Energies of the Palace?"

"Ah… I'm not sure how to explain it, exactly." Rei furrowed her brow for a moment. "There's… an underlying power that resides here. I would presume to attribute it to the Royal family, though I don't fully understand it. I could sense it more strongly in the older portion of the palace – as though the newer part were built to offset and mask that aura…"

Rei looked to her leader then, and shook her head dismissively. "Never mind, I suppose I'm just being sensitive. It can be hard to turn this off sometimes." She rolled her eyes upwards to gesture to her head.

The Martian offered a smile; small, but honest and Minako laced her fingers with Rei's own, only then aware that Rei had never released her hand.

Uncertain in the face of whatever conclusions the extra sensory senshi was drawing, the empathic leader could at least sense Rei's discomfort, and found that she wanted nothing more than to ease her worries. There was something about seeing the usually brash and confident woman reduced to such a confused and unsure state that troubled Minako to no end.

"The rooftop is fine, Rei." Minako said brightly, relieved to see the Martian's smile broaden in response to her own. "One thing though," she said sternly, and when Rei's dark eyes turned cautious, Minako laughed melodiously, "there's no way to contain the flames up here."

Lost to her commander's gaze, Rei found herself responding slowly. "Then, what would you propose?"

"Myself."

"Eh?"

"Myself." Minako repeated easily. "I'll just have to be here to keep the fire within its bounds, won't I?"

Rei was uncertain in the knowledge that somehow, those words were exactly what she had wanted to hear, and as she echoed Minako's half-smile, Minako realized that for all her petulant frowns and furrowed brows, Rei could be so expressive when she actually smiled, and Minako knew more than anything that she wanted to be the first woman on the Moon to hear Mars Rei _laugh_.

But not now. Right now, Minako wanted something else entirely.

She took a step closer then, swinging aside their hands where they were clasped together at their sides in order to place herself in their wake. Even pressed against Rei's front, they were still slightly unmatched, Rei being marginally taller.

It was easily remedied. Minako tilted her head up in the slightest. Her nose brushed Rei's. Their lips met. Breaths were hastily inhaled through noses as their mouths were otherwise occupied. They released their twined hands and fingers soon clawed at shoulders and backs. Dark hair tangled together as eager fingertips learned the curves of one another's faces.

Rei swallowed her leader's hot breath; a sound that could have been either a moan or an exclamation and the next thing she knew, the Venusian was no longer in her arms.

At the other end of the circle of trodden grass, Minako bent down on one knee, calling welcomingly to a small, white form that balanced precariously on the edge of the rooftop wall.

"Artemis!" she exclaimed, "come meet Rei!"

Minako turned to look at Rei over her shoulder and was somehow disheartened to see that Rei had recovered from the sudden, wrenching disruption as easily as she had.

'_Or, she's as good an actress as I am.'_

The lanky, white cat hopped off the wall and was nearly swallowed by the tall, unkempt grass. He wore a scowl when Minako waded through the tall weeds, lifted him up, and pulled him into a cradled position against her chest. She carried him through to safer ground and he shook himself bodily after he was placed gently on all fours near Rei's feet.

He looked up to the foreboding woman with a sense of easy calm. "Ah, so this is the Martian with the ability to track the location of those monsters."

Rei's dark eyes widened. "What _is_ he?"

Artemis nearly hissed. "I beg your pardon! Have you never seen a cat before?"

Rei's surprised gaze turned towards Minako. "It talks!"

For Minako, witnessing Artemis' ire was cause for enjoyment enough, but there was something about Rei's incredulous expression; that dark, cascaded fringe that nearly covered her wide, excited eyes and the look of unabashed curiosity that made her look many years younger that caused Minako to laugh whole-heartedly like she hadn't done in far too long.

Finally noticing that her now captive audience had dropped their mutual wonder at one another and turned instead to her, Minako smiled gently at Rei. "You know, you're really cute when you're clueless."

Rei pointed a finger at herself, those gentle expressions replaced with the smallest frown. "Who, him, or me?"

But that only caused Minako to start laughing once more. Rei could be cold and harsh and even possessed quite the mean streak, but it seemed, at least around Minako, that Rei was also prone to irresistible bouts of tempered childishness and an honest sense of affection that Minako longed to see more of.

"You, of course!" Minako said to Rei between a fit of laughter, and she wondered to herself if what she was seeing was a wall the Martian tumbled only while in her presence.

She hoped so.

Rei crossed her arms over her chest and cursed lightly. "Ch'. I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a complement."

"Consider it a compliment." Minako said with an enigmatic expression that fell somewhere between a smirk and smile.

Rei seemed to digest this information for a moment and looked back to the cat near her feet. "He's the first pet I've seen since I've arrived here."

Artemis snorted his displeasure. "You can speak to _me_, you know. I'm standing right in front of you."

Rei rolled her eyes but indulged the angry feline. "Fine. _You're_ the first pet I've seen since I've arrived here."

The white cat stuck his nose in the air. "I'm not a _pet_. I'm a royal advisor."

"Oh," Rei replied dryly. "Well then, _excuse_ me."

Minako smiled indulgently and picked up Artemis once more, patting his head distractedly. "Artemis is my advisor. He has a wealth of knowledge and he works closely with the Moon's tacticians."

She could see the wheels turning in Rei's mind she and cut off whatever snide comment was coming about needing a cat for an advisor by steering the conversation in another direction. "And you're right, there are no pets on the Moon."

She carried Artemis back to the wall that bordered the garden's edge and set him down on the ledge carefully. "Animals take up space and use up resources. Unless it can be eaten, animals have been banned."

The royal advisor turned narrowed eyes towards the Martian, who was already forming a wicked grin. "Don't you even _think_ about it. I am _not_ an edible animal." He hissed. And with that, he leapt away, surely finding safe enough footholds in his descent down the Palace walls.

Wading back through the grasses, Minako turned back to Rei, who had already begun to gather wood to burn. "Don't mind him," she said dismissively. "He's always been easily offended."

"I'm surprised he's been able to spend _any_ time around you, then." Rei said lightly as she sank to the ground on her knees and began arranging wood and kindling inside the stone pit.

Minako flopped down on the ground alongside Rei's rigid form, and as the Martian summoned the smallest fraction of her power to light the fire, she realized that she had become increasingly comfortable in Minako's presence. And she reluctantly found that that she didn't mind nearly as much as she might have expected.

Rei straightened at the thought. She had a job to do, and oogling her commander certainly was not a part of those duties. Closing her eyes, she attempted to surrender herself to the flame.

It very quickly became obvious that Minako had a short attention span. It hadn't been more than three minutes when the woman on the ground to Rei's left uttered a sigh. A minute later, Minako tossed over from her back to her front. Next, she rolled over to her side, facing Rei.

"I'm bored." She said.

Minako's statement went unanswered and Rei remained ever motionless next to her.

And that was when the _touching_ started.

It was just a poke in the side, but a vein over Rei's closed, right eye twitched. Through ground teeth, she spat, "I figured the reason you had that room prepared for me was so I could get to work tracking the monsters."

"Un." Minako agreed lazily. "What of it?" She idly poked Rei's side again, and then experimentally wiggled her fingers under the other woman's armpit, clearly looking for a reaction.

Through sheer power of will, Rei remained unaffected. "You know, I can't concentrate when you do that."

Minako sighed. "You're so predictable."

To this, Rei only snorted. Everyone was multifaceted, even herself for how stoic she tried to be, though her other aspects were more subdued, leaning towards her darker, possessive Martian natures. Minako might see that too, if only she weren't so Venusian so as not to look much farther under the surface.

"Ne," Minako said mischievously. "What if I don't _want_ you to concentrate on anything but me right now?"

This finally caused Rei to open her eyes widely and Minako laughed loudly, pleased with herself as her head rolled back on the grass.

Rei pushed an errant bang behind an ear primly. "Are you always so difficult to understand?"

Minako sobered only slightly. "Only when I'm with you."

"I'll have you know that your capricious mood swings are highly irritating."

"Well, at least I can trust your honesty."

Minako's laughter was music to the Martian's ears, and Rei didn't fight it when her commander pulled her down to join her in gazing at the sky. A comfortable silence descended as the two women laid with their backs to the ground and their heads to the heavens above.

The sun shone brightly on the Moon, but with its thin atmosphere, the stars were clear as day, and Minako soon noted that Rei's eyes were trained on a small point of red light in the distance.

"You know you can't go back, right? Even if your duty permitted it, there will be little to return to." Minako's voice was quiet, almost reverent.

Rei's eyes never drifted from that red planet in the black sky. "I just don't want to admit that my planet is dying."

"None of us do, Rei. It's just one more reason why we fight."

Rei cursed softly. "But no matter how hard we fight, nothing will restore life to our planets, though I'd like to think that there is a power out there that could do it."

Minako raised herself on an elbow. "A power that could restore a planet to life?"

Rei turned her dark gaze towards her commander who hovered so close. "Yeah."

Minako snorted. "Not only are you psychic, you're weird, too."

"Hey!"

But Minako was already leaning down to kiss her and Rei found herself raising her own shoulders off the ground to meet her, to rush that moment when their lips could meet again.

And then Minako was pushing Rei's shoulders back to the ground, her body capturing the small distance between them and half resting on Rei. There was a brief battle for dominance – Minako captured Rei's bottom lip between her teeth and Rei moaned into her commander's mouth, but just because Rei was on the bottom didn't automatically mean the woman on top held the upper hand. Rei turned the tables easily by dodging Minako's crushing lips and darting her mouth to the other woman's collarbone, and this time it was Minako that submitted to the hot lips on her neck.

But then, through half-opened lids, Rei inadvertently caught the flicker of the flames beyond them, and her body went ramrod stiff. Minako had only thought to question her unresponsive subordinate when she was caught with the same paralyzing fear, once again siphoning Rei's strange powers.

_Monsters, two dozen of them, were tearing through one of the packed market places of the Tent City. Eager men and women raided merchant stalls filled with weaponry and tried to attack the monsters head on, only to be slaughtered by the ghoulish fiends. The scream of a child as he was trampled underfoot , the desperate cry of a woman as her husband was torn in two-_

Minako gasped. "They're in the Jovian Tent City!"

Rei wrenched herself out of her vision and shook herself groggily. She grabbed her commander's hands and pulled them both to their feet. In a crimson-tinged glow of light, Mars stood in Rei's wake. She looked ready to lead the charge, but stumbled at the last second, as though she'd remembered something vital.

With a fierce snarl, she ripped her crimson choker off her neck. Minako was unsurprised to see the Martian keep her earlier promise.

"Lead the way!" Mars shouted.

Minako didn't hesitate to join Mars as Venus. Standing next to the crimson warrior, she was filled with a newfound power that she couldn't quite place. She nodded sharply, and led the attack by leaping right off the roof of the palace.

* * *

Author's Notes:

One aspect of Mercury/Hermes is a gambler, hence Ami's surprise to be matched in a bet… even if it looks like she's currently losing.

I hope this chapter has proved more interesting than some of my earlier ones. It was a hard balancing act to offer enough plot and character development while keeping the story moving forward. From here on, with most of the backstory out of the way, the pace should be more exciting.

Thanks to everyone for their continued reviews!

OOO

Preview, Chapter 6: Consequences Come Later

"So, tell me. Every time I try to find you, you're always up here. Do they make acolytes sleep beneath the stars on Mars?"

"Hardly." Rei said with a derisive snort.

"Then why sleep here?"

"I'm used to much… simpler accommodations. Despite the furnishings, my room feels terribly… empty."

It was purely unintentional, but Minako dropped her many layers of masks. "I'm lonely too, you know."

Rei frowned, upset that her commander had called her bluff. She wanted to argue, to assure Minako that she wasn't lonely at all, that she didn't need anyone's company, let alone hers. But it would have been a lie, and with every day that she spent at her commander's side, Rei found that keeping her distance from Minako was becoming increasingly difficult.

Both women offered their best poker faces. The fire popped loudly. An errant ember arced through the air and smoldered to its death in the dirt between the weeds. Minako rose to her feet and extended a hand to Rei.

"Join me tonight."

"Eh?"

"Your room won't feel so empty if the two of us are in it."


	6. Chapter 6

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 6: Consequences Come Later  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Jupiter's heart pounded in her ears. She leapt the gap between the buildings and didn't miss a beat as she kept sprinting over gravel-lined rooftops.

Mercury panted alongside her. "Down there!" She shouted, checking her coordinates against the information feed on the heads up display that beamed from her tiara.

The statement hadn't been necessary – the explosion that followed the Mercurian's words had been equally telling. Mercury and Jupiter leapt from the rooftop down to the ground, crouching low to absorb the shock.

Nearly an entire block of the run down Jovian Tent City was rapidly catching fire. Black smoke rose towards the ceiling of the geo dome in thick plumes. The crackling flames were deafening.

Mercury would have thought to curse Mars. Surely the civilians had fled the scene, but to damage any portion of the city was to set the refugees who had nothing to begin with back, but that was when she realized that the singular attack had felled nearly half a dozen of the ghouls in one go. And at second glance, she could see that their corpses weren't only charred, but nearly sliced in half…

It was the joint work of Mars _and_ Venus.

'_They combined their powers!'_

"Mercury!"

The blue haired woman snapped back to attention. Jupiter's voice was urgent. She should do something. Mercury summoned her powers to her fingertips. It felt strange, purposely directing an attack at buildings, but she hoped that the Aqua Mist would at the very least slow the flames' progress until the authorities could contain the blaze.

Next, Mercury turned to her comrades. Even from the distance that separated them, she and Jupiter could tell that the battle wasn't over. Nearly a dozen of the monsters were convening on Mars and Venus. Panting and wasted, Mars and Venus leaned their backs against each other in the street's center.

And that was when Mercury and Jupiter realized they were so far away. They wasted no time, and fired off their most powerful long range attacks. A bolt of lightening and a storm of ice rushed at the creatures, but the front line of the offensive was already reaching their commander and comrade.

"Minako-san!"

"Rei-san!"

There was a burst of light, and so many colors blinded each of the women; gold, crimson, cobalt, and evergreen.

When Jupiter found the courage to open her eyes, blinking away the multi-colored spots, she found several monster bodies charred by her electrical bolt, several more riddled with Mercury's icicles, and the remaining four lay at the feet of Venus and Mars… all of them gutted and most of them charred.

There was a strained silence. Even with the distance between them, Mercury and Jupiter could hear the rugged panting of Venus and Mars, could see the tremors evident in their shaky frames, and they noted the distinct, new weapons the two of them held in tight, white-gloved grips.

At length, Mercury managed to shake herself, and she sprinted to check on her fellow senshi, Jupiter close on her heels.

"Minako-san, are you-" Jupiter's voice caught in her throat.

Venus' golden bangs were plastered to her forehead with sweat. She drew a gasping, desperate breath and uttered a sound that teetered precariously between a sob and a laugh. Her caramel eyes were locked on the weapon in her hand.

"A dagger?" She asked tentatively.

"Like mine." Mars' voice was flat. She wiped at her left cheek absently, and only served to further smudge the soot on her face.

Venus choked on a dry syllable. There was an ironic lilt to her voice. "We'd have to have the same weapons, wouldn't we?"

Mars finally looked to her commander. "You mean this is the first time you've used it?"

The golden warrior tried to bristle but lacked the energy to follow through. "What of it?" She spat.

Mars snorted weakly and examined the identical weapons. She wasn't so blind not to notice that the golden and ruby daggers utilized both their senshi colors, and that the deep crimson edges of the razor-sharp blade protected the golden center.

And Venus wasn't so blind not to notice it, either.

The leader of the senshi raised a shaky wrist close to her mouth, and with her other trembling hand, pushed a button on her bracelet. "Artemis?" she called.

"Yes, Minako?" The feline's voice was tinny over the radio waves.

"I need you to send damage control to my coordinates immediately."

There was a long suffering sigh. "What did you do now?" He asked dryly.

"I didn't do anything." Venus caught Mars' gaze and the crimson warrior managed a halfhearted smirk. Her commander threw a dashing wink in her direction before sobering once more. "It was the monsters." She explained.

The murmur of the Moon's tacticians was heard clearly in the background. "The monsters?" Artemis asked. "But we didn't even know they were attacking-"

"It was Mars," Venus said sharply, "she tracked them down, and we eliminated the threat."

"I understand. Damage control will be there shortly."

"Oh, and Artemis?"

"Yes, Minako?"

"We're going to need a fire truck this time, too."

* * *

Beneath the generous shadow of an arching palm, Minako's voice was stern. "Remember, the Princess is to know none of what we've just seen." She stood tall and sized up her warriors. Each of the four women, who seemed only a little worse for wear after the battle in the Jovian Tent City, nodded their understanding.

Ami glanced at her chronometer worriedly. "We're late. Serenity-san will be wondering where we are."

Rei frowned and did her best to look presentable by wiping the soot and grime off her cheeks. "I thought you said the Princess wasn't allowed to leave the Palace without protection."

Minako sucked her teeth noisily and then licked the pad of her thumb. Smirking at the suddenly wide eyed Martian as she stepped in front her, Minako cupped a hand around Rei's chin and cleaned an errant line of soot off the other woman's cheekbone.

"There." Minako said with a slight nod of her head.

Her fingers released Rei reluctantly before she finally addressed her subordinate's concern. "Doubtlessly, the Princess would have chosen an aide or a tutor to deliver her to the Crown. All those who are close to the Princess have received extensive training as bodyguards, and besides," Minako's gaze hardened in the slightest, "the Princess gets what the Princess wants."

Both Makoto and Rei took note of their commander's obvious displeasure elicited by the flat statement, though now was not the time to question her and they could only follow as Ami hastily led the way into the Crown.

The automatic doors slid shut behind them, and while their senshi magic had gone a long way to make them look fresh and clean, each woman breathed a sigh of relief for the comforts of air conditioning after their heated battle. They fished out their karaoke passes and displayed them to Motoki, who was already animatedly making his way around his desk.

"Makoto-chan!" He called, even as Minako and Rei stepped through the door to their secret room, "Would you please hold on for a moment? I need to check your pass."

Ami paused at the door and cast a curious look back at the Makoto. Motoki snagged the pass from Makoto's fingers and the tall woman only shrugged her shoulders and nodded to Ami. "I'll be right there!" She called reassuringly, before turning back to the clerk with a sheepish grin. "Is there anything wrong?"

Motoki looked up from his intent inspection of the laminated card between his fingers. Finding himself so close to Makoto's chocolate gaze. He chuckled nervously. "No. Nothing at all," he said, scrambling to gain some ground, "we were just having some trouble with our laminator, and I wanted to make sure your card came out alright…"

Makoto beamed at the nervous man. "Then, does it meet your expectations?"

* * *

"Ami-chan?" The Princess looked up to the Mercurian who hadn't moved from the landing since the door had shut behind her several minutes ago.

Ami dragged her gaze from the floor and caught Minako's curious expression.

"Wasn't Makoto-san right behind you?" Minako asked.

"Ah," Ami said quietly. She backed up and the solid wall behind her became a door once again. "Perhaps she got held up," she said, "I'll go check on her."

* * *

Motoki set the pen down on the counter and slid a small scrap of paper across the glossy surface. With a wide smile, Makoto brushed her fingers against his as she examined the hastily scribbled numbers he'd written.

Abruptly, Motoki wrenched his gaze from Makoto to look down the hallway. "Ah, Ami-chan!"

Makoto spun on her heel. "Ami-chan!" She echoed, and wondered why she was so quick to pull her hands away from Motoki, why she was so quick to shove the piece of paper he had given her deep into her pocket. There was no harm in having one's number, was there?

"I-I'm sorry," Ami stuttered slightly, "I was sent to find you, and I-" she caught her lower lip between her teeth, and then spun and retreated back to the magical door, "I'm sorry I disrupted you!"

"Ami-chan!" Makoto all but abandoned the confused clerk and dashed after Ami, but the door was shut in her face. She cursed the misunderstanding under her breath before letting herself in.

As she trotted down the short flight of steps, Makoto disregarded the curious gazes of her Princess and ignored the indifferent expression of Rei. The Mercurian would not meet her gaze, and she knew that Ami couldn't be approached at such a time. Taking the green seat that sat next to Ami's, she tried to act as casual as possible.

She released a low whistle at the assortment of snacks laid across the table. "Earth food?" She asked.

Serenity beamed brightly. "A shipment of Earth snacks was sent as part of a larger good-will offering."

Makoto pulled a round treat from a bowl full of baked treats.

"That's called a chocolate chip cookie." The Princess said helpfully.

Makoto eyed it suspiciously before taking a tentative bite. Her eyes grew wide, and she made a mental note to figure out how to recreate the treat on her own later. "Maybe the Earth isn't so bad after all." She said as she popped the rest of the cookie into her mouth.

Minako crossed her legs and leaned forward. "We should begin to better acquaint ourselves with Terran customs and culture. Diplomatic relations will begin within the next few weeks, and we'll be expected to lead discussions between the entourages of the royal families."

Rei frowned darkly. _"We?"_ she asked, through a mouthful of snacks.

The leader of the senshi snorted derisively. "The senshi also serve as diplomats for what remains of the Moon Kingdom." She reveled in the Martian's obvious displeasure, and her hand invaded the bag that rested in Rei's lap. She popped several of the salty snacks into her mouth before exclaiming her approval and stealing several more.

Rei smirked righteously. "You _do_ know that this is a potato product." She said dryly. Her lips curled into a wicked smirk. "You're eating _famine-food_."

Minako paled and paused mid-chew. She snatched the bag from the Martian's lap and inspected the name of the product. "Potato chi-ppu." She said, sounding out the Terran language.

She stuck her nose in the air for a long moment, and then surrendered entirely, popping several more chips into her mouth.

"Well," Minako said, by means of explanation, "they're the best damn potatoes _I've_ ever tasted."

* * *

Wandering aimlessly through an expansive garden in one of the Palace's many courtyards, Makoto trailed several steps behind Ami and their Princess. She rubbed the back of her neck anxiously as the two in front of her chattered aimlessly. Quite frankly, she was nearly surprised by the polite and refined Mercurian's ease with the mundane.

"If I'm intruding, I'm sure I can be of use elsewhere." Makoto winced at the sound of her own voice. She hadn't meant to sound so irritated.

Serenity spun then, and the dark haired woman wore a smile that didn't quite reach her black eyes. "No, please, I like showing off my rose collection. I understand you like plants. I'd love for you to see it."

Makoto looked hopeful. "Roses?"

"Yes!" Serenity said, and this time, her eyes did shine with some emotion, "I recently received several new varieties from Endymion himself."

"Endymion?" Makoto asked.

Ami turned a smile at the Jovian that was nearly as empty as Serenity's first had been. "He is the Prince of the Earth."

Serenity clasped her hands before her and performed a dainty twirl among a bed of green boxwoods and purple barberries, her white gown fluttering over manicured grasses. "Oh, but he's so much _more_ than that!"

She skipped forward, heading down a narrow path lined with the beginnings of her rose collection. She thrust her hand into an impressive tangle of red flowers and effortlessly plucked a large, crimson rose from its vine. Makoto noticed distractedly that when a thorn of its stem bit into her wrist and drew a small amount blood, that the Princess hadn't even flinched.

Serenity examined the flower with a breathless sigh. "I wonder if he's as impressive and as handsome as the roses he seems so fond of sending me."

Makoto had to remind herself sharply that the woman she so desperately wanted to deck for unwittingly making Ami so uncomfortable was her Princess – the woman she'd sworn to serve and protect above all else. Her hands balled into tight fists as she repressed her most Jovian of tendencies.

Watching Ami's darting gaze and anxious fidgeting, Makoto's calmer nature eventually won the battle, and she directed the conversation away from the Mercurian's obvious discomfort of the Terran Prince.

Makoto stepped up to her Princess, and looking up at the taller woman, Serenity seemed to loose much of her childish bravado.

Makoto plastered a smile on her face. "May I see the flower, Serenity-chan?"

The Princess tentatively handed the crimson rose to her most intimidating warrior. Makoto turned the stem between her fingers and examined the leaves thoughtfully. She examined the petals at length until she finally hummed a low whistle as she drew her conclusion.

Ami took a small step forward, her inquisitive nature spurring her interest. "What is it, Makoto-san?"

The Jovian pointed to a mottled, yellowed leaf on the stem. "This variety is a climbing rose that originates from Mars. It's called Crimson Conquest, and it's infected with Diplocarpon rosae, more commonly known as black spot." She said with a shrug of her shoulders. "It's a fungus that attacks roses, stripping their foliage and inhibiting new blooms."

"Is it serious?" Ami was nearly on top of her then, examining the specimen thoroughly, committing the symptoms to memory.

"Not at all." Makoto smiled warmly. "A little fungicide and some proper pruning should solve the problem over the span of a season."

Makoto looked for her Princess then, to tell her the good news, but noted that Serenity had already flitted off to pick another flower further down the path. Aiming instead to keep Ami's interest, Makoto spotted another problem with a different variety on the other side of the walkway.

"This, on the other hand is a little more serious," She reached out for a particularly sickly looking rose. "This is a Gallica rose from Neptune known as Complicata. It's been left unattended for far too long, and the base of the main plant's begun to sucker underneath the ground."

She leant down then, and brushed away the mulch from the bottom of the plant. "See here?" She pointed to a powdery white substance that coated the base, "It's salvageable, but the only way to get rid of the mildew before it kills the plant is to cut the plant down to half its size and pull the suckers out of the ground. It'll look ugly for the next year, but once it fills in, it'll be healthy and strong"

Ami breathed a sigh of relief. "At least it can be saved. I'm glad these plants can be treated. Horticulture was never a field I studied, but I can appreciate the beauty that plants bring to all peoples." She smiled softly at Makoto. "It's quite an impressive skill you have, to be able to identify plants all the way down to their variety name, and to diagnose their diseases. I'm envious."

Makoto blushed slightly, always amazed at how this one, small Mercurian could reduce her to such a nervous schoolgirl. "It's no big deal." She said. "Its mostly knowledge I've gained through my senshi abilities and my bond with my planet. It's not like it's book smarts or anything."

Ami rested her hand on Makoto's wrist. The blue tinted depths of her brown eyes seemed endless. "Does that make your knowledge any less special?"

Makoto scratched at the back of her neck. "It's not special at all. I… don't even really care for plants or flowers." Her words were rushed. Being reminded of her love of plants also reminded her of the gender struggles on her planet, and the innocent comment ended up rubbing her the wrong way

Ami straightened. Her lips turned to a frown. The Jovian's darting chocolate gaze was telling – Ami knew a lie when she saw one. Slowly, she released her grip on Makoto's wrist.

And when that tentative hold withered like a dying vine, Makoto somehow felt relieved. Because for all she was attracted to the Mercurian, it was so much easier when Ami wasn't unknowingly leading her on. It was one thing to casually flirt with her when Makoto knew she didn't stand a chance. It was another to pretend there was something there.

"I just… don't want to disappoint you." She said as explanation. "I know Mercurians value studying."

But this only seemed the draw the other woman closer. "I would never be disappointed, Makoto-san. I-"

Ami paused then, entirely uncertain of where her train of thought had been leading her. She derailed it, and settled for safer territory. "You know," she said, "my mother was fond of roses. We always had them in the house when I was young. Mercurian roses suffered from many problems because they were grown under artificial lights, and they were highly prone to insects and diseases. I wonder if there's such a variety that's resistant to both?"

Despite her attempts at disinterest, Makoto brightened. "Well, this isn't exactly one yet, but I've-"

She was interrupted by her Princess. Serenity came twirling between them, spinning in a flourish, holding a lavender rose to the front of her white dress. "Ne, Mako-chan?" She asked distractedly.

"Yes, Serenity-chan?" The Jovian asked, even as she nearly cringed at the sweet edge to her Princess' voice. She wondered if she was the only one who had noticed that Serenity's extremes tended to sway from one end of the spectrum to another so quickly.

"When we were leaving Crown earlier, I couldn't help but notice that Motoki-kun seems to have eyes for you."

"A… Ah." Makoto floundered with a pointed lack of grace. She could feel Ami's eyes as though they were burning a hole through her. "I… I hadn't really noticed."

"Well, maybe you should open your eyes, Makoto-chan." Serenity linked hands with Ami and began to pull the smaller woman down the rose lined path. She seemed to look back to Makoto only as an afterthought. "Would you like to see the rest of my roses?"

Somehow, Makoto got the feeling that there was really only one right answer to that question. She rubbed the back of her neck and managed a small smile. "I'll take a look at them on my own. Thanks. Why don't you two go ahead?"

Serenity winked in Makoto's general direction. The last thing to disappear around the flowered corner was Ami's uncertain gaze as it trailed back to her comrade.

Fingering the scrap of paper deep in her pocket, Makoto turned and stormed off.

* * *

"It's getting late," Ami said uncertainly as she was dragged further into the garden, "they'll be expecting you for dinner."

"No one expects me for dinner anymore." Serenity said with a sudden vehemence. "Not even Luna. Everyone's too busy to spend time with _me_, and I've been taking my meals alone."

She stopped and turned on her closest friend. Despite the venom in her voice, she wore a smile. With a dramatic sigh, Serenity surrendered herself to the ground, heedless of wrinkling her gown as she sprawled across the damp grass.

Ami joined her hesitantly. Folding her knees underneath her, she sat rigidly alongside Serenity.

"So, Motoki-kun and Makoto-chan, huh? What do you think of that?"

Ami stiffened. "I… didn't know they had feelings for one another."

"It was _so_ obvious the way they were eyeing each other when we left this afternoon. In fact, I'll bet they're going on a _date_ tonight."

There was a strained silence. Eventually, Serenity rolled onto her side to look up at the Mercurian. "Ami-chan, I think maybe you shouldn't spend time with Makoto-chan anymore."

"But… Princess…" Ami turned her conflicted gaze to the other woman, "Serenity-chan, she's a fellow senshi. We have to work together. It would be… unprofessional of me to avoid her. Why is it that you feel this way?"

Serenity frowned, unused to Ami's passive form of defiance. "Does it matter why?" She countered.

"No," Ami picked at the sleeve of her shirt, "it doesn't." She gave the situation more thought, and found the courage to look at her Princess once again. "Is that… is that an order, Serenity-chan?"

There was a long pause as Serenity regarding Ami with an unreadable expression. "No, Ami-chan. It's not an order."

And Serenity was most displeased to see Ami's obvious relief. Slowly, she pulled herself up to mirror Ami's sitting position, and she stared at her closest friend intently.

Not knowing how else to keep someone close to her, Serenity leaned forward. With her lips firmly on Ami's own, she slowly pushed the smaller woman down to the ground.

* * *

It had taken Makoto several drinks to shake off the unpleasantness of the afternoon, but eventually, she'd met her goal. She and Motoki had talked long into the night and hadn't even noticed when the club's canned beat had faded and more patrons began to leave rather than enter.

"Tur-tle?" Motoki asked haltingly.

Makoto smiled. "It's an animal sacred to Jovians for its self sufficiency and protective exterior. They're amazing little creatures."

"I'd like to see one some day." Motoki said with a lopsided smile.

To this, Makoto frowned. "I fear you'll only be able to see them in pictures. Although they also exist on the Earth, those on Jupiter will perish with the peoples that stayed behind."

The spiky haired man worried his lower lip at the dark atmosphere he'd inadvertently caused. "Ne, Mako-chan?" He tried cautiously.

"Eh?"

"I was wondering… I know we've only just met, but… would you like to come back to my place? I mean… not like that! Perhaps we could… have a cup of coffee! And you could show me more information about turtles – I have a pretty decent computer, and…"

Makoto laughed away the awkwardness, and this seemed to marginally relax her newfound companion.

Companionship… even if it weren't to evolve past that, it would be more than welcome, and it wasn't like she could have brought him to her place at the Palace. He thought she was some karaoke singing refugee from Jupiter. And it wasn't like she was cheating on anyone… although she liked Ami, the stubborn Mercurian was far too absorbed with the Princess to notice her, and it was glaringly obvious that Serenity had some kind of vested interest in keeping Ami close to herself, and besides, her nomadic ways had long since instructed her to find companionship and even love wherever she found it, and…

And she was putting _entirely_ too much thought into this.

"Sure." She replied with a shrug of her shoulders. Rising to her feet, she grabbed her light jacket off the back of her chair. "Lead the way, Motoki-kun."

* * *

Minako's tentative knock went unnoticed, so she raised her knuckles and tried again. She sighed when she received no response. It was against her nature to chase anyone this hard, but she found she couldn't stop herself, even if she wanted to.

She tried the handle. The door gave way to her hesitant touch. She swung it open enough to stick her head into the darkness and she called quietly,

"Rei?"

She frowned. Her hand fumbled at the wall along the door. Surely their rooms couldn't be too different from one another? She found the light switch with little effort and blinked when the lights shone at her command. It was immediately apparent that their rooms were mirror images of one another; a small antechamber lled to a bedroom and adjoining private bath. But what had disoriented her so badly was the _dark_.

'_Leave it to the Martian to hole herself up in a cave.' _She cursed lightly as she strode across the room and took note that, unlike in her room, the heavy, ornate curtains that covered the antechamber's broad windows were securely fastened shut, and didn't allow for the slightest amount of the Moon's bluish-gold perma-day to leak through.

She poked her head into Rei's bedroom, and was somehow unsurprised to find that, not unlike the antechamber, this space also looked largely unlived in. The bed sheets were pristinely made, the pillows neatly arranged as though she'd never spent a night in it, and it occurred to Minako that maybe she hadn't.

There wasn't an ounce of personality to the tidy space. A quick glance to the bedroom door found the Martian's luggage neatly piled to the right of the entrance. One bag sat unzipped, and the edge of a deep crimson cloak that poked out from under the zipper was the only sign that Rei even knew where her room was at all.

'_If she's not here, then where would she be?'_

Minako flipped the light switch back off distractedly as she shut the door behind her.

* * *

Venusians had a knack for intuition. When Minako thought enough to use hers, it generally led her in the right direction. It hadn't failed her this time.

Minako knew that it was a sore spot of Rei's that she had the ability of sneaking up on the cautious Martian without being detected. The soldier in Minako would have insisted this was because of her warrior skills. The Venusian in her would have demanded it was because Rei _wanted_ to be snuck up on.

At the moment, she didn't allow herself to ponder the meaning. On the rooftop garden, Rei was on her back in the center of the circle of trodden grass. A small fire, intended for warmth instead of for aural tracking, cast a red-orange glow in the combined light of the Sun and Earth that shined at either ends of the horizon.

The beauty of the setting went unnoticed to Minako. She was too busy listening to disjointed singing that came from Rei. If she listened hard enough, Minako could make out words, stanzas. She didn't understand the Martian language well enough to translate the words fluently, but finally, despite the fact that Rei tended to wander off key in the same spot before the chorus, Minako recognized the tune.

Halfway through the tale of an epic battle fought between two warring nations, Rei choked on the next verse when she suddenly saw her commander looming over top of her. With wide eyes, her limbs flailed for a short moment.

Minako allowed the other woman to recover from her shock with what little dignity Rei could reclaim.

"I thought you didn't sing." Minako said offhandedly. She folded her legs underneath her and sat next to the Martian's reclining form.

Rei crossed her arms over her chest and stared up into the thin atmosphere at the faint stars above. "I don't." She spat. "I was… _humming_."

"You were singing," Minako said, undeterred, "and you have a beautiful voice."

Rei's body went stiff and she sputtered. "Shut up." She barked, though her irritation was belied by a slight blush across her cheeks.

Minako laughed melodically and smiled at Rei. "In fact, you have such a nice voice that I think you should go on tour. I can see it now: Martian singing sensation – Mars Reiko!"

Rei rolled her eyes. "Now you're just patronizing me."

Minako smirked mischievously. "Am I? I quite like it." She put a finger to her chin. "The idea _and_ the name."

Rei frowned pointedly. "No."

"No?" Minako echoed coyly. "But I think it would've been cute."

"All the more reason not to, then." Rei said testily.

Minako shrugged, and although it was clear that she might have run the topic into the ground, it was just as easy for her to latch onto a new thread of conversation. "Ah. Well, I guess it's for the best. You've got it all wrong, anyway. That song goes like this,"

Minako straightened herself and drew in a deep breath. She had to search her memory for a short moment to recall the version of Rei's song that she knew, but once the opening line popped into her mind, the rest flowed easily. In her native tongue that was gentle and lyrical and smooth, she weaved the threads of two star-crossed lovers caught among desperate, crumbling nations, destined to an ill-fated love that would spell destruction to both their lands.

In the song's wake, Minako basked in the open admiration Rei afforded her. "Well?" She asked leadingly.

Rei managed to gather her wits and pull her jaw from the ground. "You know that song? It must be older than the Silver Millennium itself."

Minako nodded thoughtfully. "I think it's been told or sung since before the first Lunarians started colonizing the other planets."

"I didn't know it was sung in Venusian, too." Rei admitted.

Minako tossed her dark hair over a shoulder. "I'd say our version is better suited for a fairytale."

Rei's nose scrunched up in distaste. "What part of the fate of two warring nations doesn't make for a good myth?"

"Aah, Martians." Minako pinched the bridge of her nose dramatically and then winked at Rei. "The Venusian version of the myth centers more on the love between the Prince and the Princess."

"One would think that they aren't the same myth." Rei said sourly.

Minako smiled brightly. "Rest assured that one thing that'll always be universal in this galaxy is fairytales, and we all like to change them around to suit our cultures." The Venusian drew her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them. "I think the Mercurian version has an emphasis on the differences between the cultures of the two warring nations, and the Jovian version focuses on the monsters the Princess' peoples could summon."

Rei smiled up at her commander. "Well, yours was beautiful." She admitted.

"Eh?"

"Ah… your… your _voice_! Your _voice_ is beautiful."

Minako smirked wickedly, saving her knowledge of the Martian's slip for later use. "Perhaps you'd have heard me sing awhile ago at the Crown, if you weren't so scared off by something as harmless as karaoke."

Rei's dark gaze darted as far away from Minako's imploring caramel eyes as possible. "Well… perhaps listening might be tolerable so long as it's you that's singing."

Minako basked in her small victory. Sighing contentedly, she leaned forward. Folding her legs Indian-style, she rested her elbows on her knees and looked down at her subordinate. "So, tell me. Every time I try to find you, you're always up here. Do they make acolytes sleep beneath the stars on Mars?"

"Hardly." Rei said with a derisive snort.

"Then why sleep here?"

"I'm used to much… simpler accommodations. Despite the furnishings, my room feels terribly… empty."

It was purely unintentional, but Minako dropped her many layers of masks. "I'm lonely too, you know."

Rei frowned, upset that her commander had called her bluff. She wanted to argue, to assure Minako that she wasn't lonely at all, that she didn't need anyone's company, let alone hers. But it would have been a lie, and with every day that she spent at her commander's side, Rei found that keeping her distance from Minako was becoming increasingly difficult.

Both women offered their best poker faces. The fire popped loudly. An errant ember arced through the air and smoldered to its death in the dirt between the weeds. Minako rose to her feet and extended a hand to Rei.

"Join me tonight."

"Eh?"

"Your room won't feel so empty if the two of us are in it."

Rei and Minako stared at each other, their wavering gazes and uncertain expressions straddling the edge of two entirely different outcomes for a long moment.

Did it matter that they'd only known each other for a couple of weeks? Did it matter that they worked together as commander and subordinate? Did it matter that they were at one another's throats half the time?

No.

It only mattered that they were together – right then and there.

Consequences, after all, could always come later.

Rei accepted Minako's hand and allowed the Venusian to pull her to her feet.

* * *

Minako checked her chronometer as they tiptoed through the senshi's common area. The hour was late. The others were sure to be asleep. Rei trailed a half step behind Minako, graceful enough to maintain such a close proximity without tripping over her leader's feet. They threaded their way through the quiet corridors, the lights dimmed and curtains half-drawn to reflect the fact that it was nighttime despite the glow of the Sun and the Earth outside.

Stalling outside Rei's door, Minako glanced over her shoulder and whispered, "Have you been sleeping up on the roof all along?"

Rei nodded, and whispered in return. "Yes, for what little I've slept. Even with the curtains drawn, it's hard to adjust to the constant state of day here. At least up there I feel more a part of the natural world."

Minako's hand paused on the doorknob. "You know, being on Venus is like being the Moon. Because our days last so many months, we actually have two sets of cities, one on each side of the planet so that we can migrate to stay in the sun's rays. That way, we never have to live in the dark. It's why we love the light so much."

Rei's hand covered Minako's. Together, they opened the door and stepped inside. The door swung itself shut, and the Martian forged forward easily, bounding into the darkness. She paused only when she realized that Minako had not followed. Her eyes still adjusting to dark-blindness, Rei edged her way back to the door where she found Minako's slightly shaking form.

"Martians aren't a people of the light. You understand that about me, don't you?" Rei's voice was quiet, unassuming.

Minako blinked. Once her eyes had adjusted, she realized that she could see the faint lines of light that outlined the door and the dimmest of glows that infiltrated even the heavy curtains. It wasn't nearly as dark as she'd first thought…

But it was Rei's reassuring touch – a hand that held her own, the comforting feeling of the weight of her arm around her waist - that was the biggest boon of all.

Minako smirked, though she knew Rei would be unable to see that quirky half-smile. "Well, as long as you're with me, I can't be afraid, now can I?"

"You know," Rei said slowly, already distracted by her commander's wandering hands, "for having a pointed lack of a relationship between us, you're _awfully_ clingy."

Minako hummed into Rei's mouth. "What relationship?" She asked, as she teased Rei's lower lip with her teeth.

Always the leader, Minako led the charge. Blindly, she began to push the other woman backwards in the dark, each step bringing them closer to the bedroom, each step shedding another article of clothing. They stumbled over a chaise lounge in the middle of the antechamber, and despite their level of distraction, to hear the stoic Martian _giggling_ was music to the Venusian's ears.

Nearing the bedroom, Rei's hurried fingers unclasped the waist of Minako's trousers. Each step brought the pants closer to falling off, but as Minako tried to kick them free of her feet, she stumbled on the fabric and tumbled right into Rei's waiting arms.

Rei maneuvered them deftly, and the formerly pristine bed finally saw some a semblance of use as the taller woman's body crashed down on top of Minako's.

The bed was large, but didn't seem big enough to contain the two women. Bodies rolled in a nearly constant struggle for dominance, pausing only long enough when pleasure dulled the need to be the one on top. Positions changed, fingers searched for leverage, the fabric only made them _hotter_, and gradually, the blankets, sheets and pillows were tossed off the bed.

Indeed, it would be a long time before the darkness would hold the light, and together, they would finally surrender to the need for sleep.

* * *

Author's Notes:

More parallels here. Makoto's interest in flowers and turtles. Mars Reiko. And lots and lots of foreshadowing for later chapters. ^.~

Thanks to everyone for their continued reviews! The next chapter will be a bit of a shift – a brief interlude set in the present. I have several interludes set in the present day planned throughout the story to remind us that their story is being relived through their eyes, and that there will be implications among them once the story has unfolded.


	7. Chapter 7

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 7 (Interlude)  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Present Day: Crown Karaoke

Glimpsed in furtive glances cast around the room when one of them thought the others weren't looking, one might have thought that Rei was blushing. Quiet and stoic and all four of them pointedly avoiding anything that resembled eye contact - most notably between Minako and Rei and again between Makoto and Ami - the silence was thick enough to choke on.

Neither pair of women would have known the whole of what the other pair had experienced; some memories were too private to be shared, but the extent of the events that they had relived together was equally obvious.

Rei just barely caught Minako's gaze lingering on her and she tensed. The other woman was so close – only inches away next to her. She knew that to move on from the awkwardness, they had to focus on something else entirely, on anything other than the most recent of memories that had relived. She thought she'd found a perfectly viable and vanilla topic when Makoto raised an eyebrow and sneered at her.

"Wow," Makoto said, looking to Rei and Minako, "you two had it _bad_ for each other."

Rei slapped her palm against her thigh and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're one to talk, with your thing for-"

Makoto stood, the plastic chair she'd been sitting in screeching across the floor. "For as much as you two fought with one another back then, by this life's standards, by now you should have-"

"The past doesn't equal the present!" Rei's vehement shout echoed in the small, subterranean space.

"That's enough." In comparison, Minako's voice was quiet, though she failed to fully mask the small echo of pain she felt at Rei's words. She stared Makoto down and it took the tall woman only a half second to comply to her non-verbal command to back off. Despite the fact that, in this life, Minako's role as leader had never been so clearly defined, Makoto bent and pulled her chair underneath her with a quiet grumble.

"You two," Minako said, trying for humor and not completely pulling it off, "between the Jovian tendency to expose and discuss, and the Martian insistence to bottle up and push things away, it's a wonder you became friends in this life at all."

Rei crossed one leg over the other. "I said, we're not the same now as we were then." She repeated quietly.

Minako's clammy hands balled into fists. It wouldn't be the first time Rei had sent mixed signals, not nearly close, and the confusion was getting to her. She was used to Rei denying the importance of the past life, but now Rei was acting as if the gathering of their shared memories wasn't affecting her at all; as if she'd suspected everything, as if, perhaps, she had already known what the two of them had shared in the past life.

And she was _accepting_ it. Not denying and fighting and walking away like Minako might have expected.

Minako cleared her throat. "Perhaps we should call this off."

"No." Ami's voice was hoarse; quiet and gravelly as if with disuse. She refused eye contact with any of her friends and her hands clenched at her sides repeatedly, as though she were trying to hold on to something that remained evasive.

"Crown," she said quietly, glancing around the room. "This place, everything… it's not coincidence that we're here again."

"Few things are coincidence." Minako said with a shrug of her shoulders, and none, not even Rei challenged her statement.

"Usagi-chan," Ami's voice lodged in the back of her throat. "Serenity…"

"There was something wrong with her, back then." Makoto said.

"It was like she had a split…" Ami's voice trailed off uncertainly. She dared eye contact with Minako, their leader, the one among them who had always had access to these memories all along, only to find that Minako would not lift her gaze from the floor.

"Our powers," Ami's hands started to shake, "we didn't have half their intensity in this life. If we had, we could have… could have-" she choked on a sob. It was all becoming too much, suffering the duality of a previous life in which they had played similar roles. It was in Ami's nature to analyze and understand, to offer her knowledge to help the others, and she found herself flailing and lacking direction.

"We could have prevented it all, helped Usagi-chan, spared-" Ami couldn't hold back her tears and she swallowed her cry. Makoto reached out tentatively and Ami flinched away from her touch. Makoto withdrew awkwardly, folding one hand in her other.

Minako shifted in her seat. "It's true that we were stronger, then, closer in touch with our senshi strength. Perhaps in this life, Usagi-chan had more control over-" she paused, her mouth open as she considered her words. "It would appear that the intensity of our powers is affected by the strength of our Princess."

"A sliding scale." Makoto said. "But for what reason?"

Minako would not answer that particular question. "Our powers respond to the amount of danger we face."

Ami wiped the back of her hand across her tear-stained cheeks. "And if we ever have to face a… a greater danger in the future? What then?"

Ami, Makoto, and Minako all found themselves looking to Rei for an answer to the uncertainty of the future. Surely, she'd know.

"Rei?" Minako finally asked after a long moment of silence.

Rei finally turned to look at her leader. "Who was it that said that we lack the depth of our past life powers?" Her voice was strong, but haunted, even resigned. The women fell into an uncomfortable silence.

Finally unable to bear the burden of the weight, and eager to transfer the attention of the others off of her, Rei pulled out her cell phone.

"I'm hungry," she said, her fingers already pressing buttons. "Who wants pizza?"

* * *

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the long delay between updates. Real life hit me hard for a while there. Updates should progress normally again. The next chapter will return us to the Silver Millennium.

Special thanks to MelsT for her encouragement to get back to this story. I'm totally dedicating the rest of this story to her!

OOO

Preview, Chapter 8: Tainted

"You obsess, Minako. You fall for every good looking creature that crosses your path. You fall fast, you fall hard, and then you lose interest and wander away to find something new, just like every other Venusian does." Artemis scowled and pointed a paw at Minako. "And this is hardly the time for a silly fantasy to be derailing you. Have you forgotten your promise to your people? Your promise to _yourself_?"

Minako straightened stiffly. "Of course not!"

"Then this is not the time to be pretending you've found true love."

Minako's gaze hardened and Artemis cursed himself for the role he'd been forced to play, the role Minako herself had long ago assigned him. When he spoke again, the sharp edge to his voice had withered away.

"Rei is no different than any of your other flings, Mina-chan. You'll tire of her in a few days. I'm sure of it."

Minako's chuckle was hollow. "Maybe you're right." She said quietly. "Maybe I _am_ fickle."

"You're _Venusian_." Artemis repeated weakly. "And the last thing you need right now is to get emotionally involved with a Martian."


	8. Chapter 8

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 8: Tainted  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

The morning hour was growing late, but despite her Venusian tendencies, Minako did not rise to open the curtains to greet the day. Part of that was so as not to disturb the sleeping Martian that doubled as her pillow, another part was because she had realized for the first time…

The darkness wasn't so terrible after all.

Their cultural differences had made their coupling interesting the night before. The Martian desire was to cut to the chase and achieve the final goal by whatever means necessary, and was in direct opposition to the Venusian way of the journey being half the fun as the destination.

And that was okay, for they'd given each other plenty of opportunities to learn the best of both worlds. Martian possessiveness and intensity was something that Minako wasn't sure she could ever again go without, while Venusian creativity and patience had been wholly new and exciting to Rei.

Rei had melted like putty in Minako's hands, and _that_ was what had shocked her the most. - it wasn't the reaction Rei had had to _her_ that was so surprising as much as _her_ reaction to _Rei – _this had been the first time that Minako had so willingly _given_ pleasure without much thought to her own. And although she had been endlessly pleased that Rei had given as much in return, if not more, Minako had been nearly frightened at her own selflessness in bed.

She tried to tell herself that it was a fluke. That _all_ of this was a fluke. She had to be strong. It was unlike her to spend the morning wallowing in bed with _any_ lover, let alone someone like the confrontational Martian.

But somehow, as she looked down and smiled at the marks Rei had left on her body – marks made with nails and teeth and lips - she knew it would happen again.

And she was eager for it.

There was a sudden tensing of muscles underneath her, and slowly, Rei's loose hold around Minako's waist tightened.

"You're awake." A soft smile ghosted across Minako's lips as her pillow shifted and squinted against the pull of wakefulness.

"Thank you for stating the obvious." Rei growled and buried her face in Minako's hair.

The Venusian giggled and ran her fingernails across her lover's scalp. "Has anyone ever told you you're absolutely adorable when you're grumpy?"

"Always." The Martian countered dryly.

This drew another warm laugh from Minako, and when her hot breath pooled on Rei's neck, a slow, languid smile pulled at the corners of Rei's lips. Her secure hold around her captive loosened, her arms shifted, her fingers splayed across Minako's bare ribcage, slid up to meet the swell of her breasts. And Minako was reminded that the normally stoic Martian was capable of dizzying displays of passion when given the opportunity. Soon enough, Minako's giggles became sighs, moans, needy breaths.

But then, Minako grabbed Rei's wrist in a sudden movement and Rei's dark eyes nearly betrayed her neutral expression when her commander pulled away from her touch.

"Know this now," Minako said cautiously, quietly, "I understand that this is a _lot_ of fun, but you have to know: I don't do relationships. It would interfere with my duties." Her frown deepened, as though her next words were afterthoughts. "In fact, I don't do _mornings after_, either." A parody of a smile returned to her lips. "If any of this continues, you won't catch me here once you wake up again."

Rei never lost control of her blank expression in the silence that followed. She understood another one of the Venusian's masks when she saw it.

And she would play along.

"Are you quite done?" Rei asked.

"Eh?"

"You're rambling. And if you thought I wanted _any_ of that from you, you'd be sorely mistaken."

Minako offered her trademark half-smirk, but she was all too aware that it wavered in the slightest. "Shut up and kiss me." She managed in a hoarse whisper.

Rei's response had been exactly what Minako had wanted, but when the Martian rolled her over bodily and pressed her back into the mattress, her deft fingers seamlessly picking up where they had left off, Minako couldn't help but wonder why it had stung so much to hear it.

* * *

Serenity and Ami eagerly grabbed for the serving utensils of the diverse new dishes Makoto had brought to breakfast this morning. The Princess of the Moon nearly squealed as she homed in on a plate of familiar looking treats.

"Chocolate chip cookies? You made them yourself, Makoto-chan?" Serenity popped one in her mouth and gave it careful consideration as she chewed. "And they're better than the ones Endymion sent!"

Ami proffered a cookie for herself and, nodding distantly, seemed to echo their Princess' sentiment. Makoto chuckled nervously. Was she the only one who noticed Serenity's intense mood shifts? The day before, Serenity had glared daggers at her, but today, she was eagerly complimenting her cookies and tacking affectionate suffixes onto her name.

It was only as an afterthought that she paused to look at the two empty chairs to Serenity's left, those reserved for the Minako and Rei.

"It's pretty late. Do you think we should, I don't know, call them or something?" Makoto asked as she took her seat next to Ami and scooted her legs under the table.

"Nah," Serenity said, "I don't think they'd appreciate that very much."

"_They?"_ Makoto asked with a suggestively raised eyebrow.

"Serenity-chan?" Ami asked, her brow wrinkled.

"What?" The Princess asked through a mouthful of her homemade breakfast. "Don't tell me you guys didn't think it too."

"But… Rei-san's so… serious!" Ami was already blushing slightly, her mind running off with her.

Makoto stuck a hunk of meat into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "Yeah, well, with all due respect, Minako-san's not the most carefree person _I've_ ever met either, ya know."

"What are you two trying to say?" Ami asked haltingly.

Serenity took a generous sip of juice and smiled. "I'm _saying_ that it just might work out between them!"

Ami's fork hovered in the air near her mouth. "Work out? As in…" Serenity waggled an eyebrow in her direction suggestively and Ami blushed a deeper shade of pink. "But… they're both so confrontational and…"

"Pissy?" Serenity offered.

"…not exactly the words I would have chosen." Ami said with a troubled frown. "But they're so similar, would it really work out?"

Makoto snorted. Her smile fell. She found her gaze lingering on Ami. "Yeah, whatever happened to _opposites_ attracting?"

Serenity frowned at her tallest warrior. Her fork clattered on her plate. The mood perceptibly shifted and she turned her dark eyes past Ami and toward Makoto before leaning her elbows across the tabletop. "Ne, Mako-chan? You look like you were out all night. Were you out on a date?" She traded her concerned expression for arched eyebrows. "I know! Were you out with Motoki-kun?"

Makoto felt herself pressing her back into her chair at her Princess' barrage. She began to stammer, trying to find an appropriate response, even as she noticed Ami trying to make herself as small as possible where she was stuck in the uncomfortable crossfire.

Thankfully, Serenity immediately homed in on a new target. "How nice of you to join us, we were _just_ talking about you two!" She exclaimed as Minako and Rei entered the room, noting immediately the distinct lack of space between their bodies.

"Well?" Serenity asked leadingly, "What are _you two_ so happy about?"

This only made Rei frown harder. "Eh?"

Serenity smiled. "You're positively _glowing_."

Minako and Rei held each other's gazes for one, short moment. In less than half a second, Rei conceded and followed her unscripted but understood lines. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned in disgust. In response, Minako snorted and stuck her nose to the air. But as they headed to the table dismissively, each shared a sideways glance that was telling enough.

It should have been a sign that, despite the insistence that what they claimed they had was only physical, their true feelings still showed. It would have saved them much heartache, had they just admitted what was in their hearts then and there.

But they didn't.

* * *

Serenity leaned heavily on Ami as she embraced her closest friend. She wondered idly as she clung to her slim shoulders, if one had to go beyond just kissing to maintain friendship, for it seemed as though Ami just wasn't as interested in her as she used to be.

"I don't want to go to my tutoring lesson." She pouted.

Ami chuckled indulgently and tightened her hold around her Princess with one hand while stroking her long,, dark hair with the other. "Now, Luna would be _most_ unpleased to hear you say that." She scolded softly.

Serenity stamped her foot petulantly, but pulled away from her smaller friend. The smile she found on Ami's face was enough to lighten her spirits, and she returned it. "Will you come and pick me up this afternoon once Luna's done boring me half to death?"

"Certainly, Serenity-chan. But only if you get in there before Luna starts to wonder why you're so late."

To this, the Princess beamed brightly. With one last squeeze to Ami's hand, she ran into her tutelage quarters with high hopes for the end of her long session.

The heavy, wooden door shut behind her Princess and Ami found herself staring down the hallway for some time, completely unsure of where her thoughts were trying to lead her. It was only the blur of a green cloak that finally caught her attention from the corner of her eye.

She hurried to the edge balcony where she could see the courtyard one floor below. She hadn't even noticed that her breath had caught in her throat, and she was calling out before she'd even realized her mouth was moving at all.

"Makoto-san!"

Ami winced at the decibel of her voice as it was amplified against the marble and granite, but Makoto quickly homed in on her. Those expressive chocolate eyes recognized her immediately, even from one floor down and dozens of feet away. Makoto waved welcomingly, and Ami couldn't help but feel a few degrees warmer, even if she couldn't define the feeling.

Not pausing to wonder what she'd initiated, Ami found herself darting around Palace attendants and other Lunarians as she rushed to the staircase, and she was wholly surprised to find a bounce to her step as she hurried down the steps.

Even though her Princess had advised her to stay away from Makoto for reasons unspecified, Ami was eager to meet with her. Her logical side told her that sparring sessions weren't optional, and there was no feasible way for her to avoid her comrade. It would only make things more awkward if she were to try, and relations between the senshi would suffer for it.

It was against her nature to go against Serenity's wishes, but she found that doing something for herself wasn't so terrible after all. Perhaps, she reasoned logically, it was the Jovian influence on her. And besides, she admitted to herself with a shy smile as Makoto once again came into view, she didn't _want_ to stay away from the other woman, either.

"Where are you off to, Makoto-san?"

The tall woman shrugged and ran her fingers down the edge of her well-worn traveling cloak. "I thought I'd acquaint myself with the Tent Cities a little better, perhaps patrol a little bit." Her tentative smile became a mischievous grin. "I can't let Rei take all the credit for finding those monsters."

"Rei-san's aural tracking?" Ami asked.

Makoto snorted. "That's what _she_ calls it. I think she's just good at finding trouble."

Considering the topic of conversation at breakfast, Ami couldn't help but want to agree with that statement, but she forced her attention away from it. "I'm not particularly eager to fight those creatures again," she said warily, "but perhaps I can serve as a guide? I've been on the Moon long enough and I know my way around…"

"I'd like that." Makoto said swiftly, for she was entirely aware that the longer Ami explained herself, the more she seemed to doubt her intentions. She smiled brightly. "Lead the way, Ami-chan."

* * *

The Venusian Tent City was by far the most beautiful of the areas surrounding the Moon Palace, second only to the proper Lunarian cities that still bordered the Palace walls. Makoto and Ami had trailed slowly through busy streets filled with festively dressed people far too absorbed in their own inner workings to notice that they were living in a refugee camp, and like she had her commander, Makoto admired these willful Venusians. These peoples' main vehicle of trade was decoration - clothing, bedding, and house wares. Although they were not made with the lavish gold, silver, and silk their goods were once known for, the shops that lined every street and alley were none the less filled with a high level of craftsmanship.

The Venusians had made the most of their meager supplies; chipped, limestone walls that might have once been part of a poorer district of the Lunarian capital had been painted over in bright, cheerful colors. Murals depicting the Sun dominated unbroken, featureless walls. Scrap metals and plastics that served as lean-to housing units were likewise made presentable and nearly appealing. Even the many tents that served as homes for so many families were dyed in warm colors and adorned with what meager decorations its inhabitants could make, build, or barter for.

Makoto and Ami's ambling walk through unnamed and circuitous streets led them next to the Martian Tent City. Much smaller in size, it was a direct contrast to the cheerful village they had exited, and Makoto found herself reconsidering the similarities of Rei and Minako when she compared these refugee camps to one another.

Minimalist in nature and highly compartmentalized with organized areas for shops and homes, the peoples here afforded one another wide berths and gave a grudging respect to personal space despite the cramped quarters. Gruff looking men sat outside weapon stalls, and it was the sale of their precision weapons that fueled the Martian Tent City's meager economy. The occasional gun shot or crossbow bolt whizzing through the air to demonstrate their goods was not uncommon, and if anything, was encouraged.

Makoto and Ami had to skirt around several street fights, and although Makoto didn't seem to think the practice was too out of the ordinary, Ami had explained that the Martian men, and sometimes, even the women, would engage in the activity as a hobby of sorts.

They entered the Jovian Tent City next, a place they had seen only briefly during a monster battle several days past. They took note to avoid the one-time battleground, lest they be recognized and chastised for their actions. Despite their service to all the peoples seeking refuge on the Moon, common opinion of the senshi was largely mixed and undecided. It hadn't helped that Queen Serenity, too busy in her efforts to ease the hardships of her beleaguered peoples, hadn't even had a chance to introduce the Princess' newest soldiers properly.

Here in the Jovian Tent City, however, Makoto felt most at home. Of all the cities, this corner of the space under the geo dome boasted the most greenery. No doubt the Jovians had scrounged and bartered for every sprig of plant material they could afford in order to feel more at ease in the limestone and metal world. Many refugees here made a living in the field of horticulture, and the majority of the shops along the street boasted softwood cuttings of precious plant material slowly being propagated and grown for sale, useful not only for aesthetic purposes, but to aid to Eternal Main System's oxygen production for the overtaxed computers that struggled to maintain life support for the burgeoning population.

Not unlike the Venusian Tent City, murals were painted on many surfaces, and Ami noted that she had never seen so many shades of green in one place. Had it not been for the brown and tan clad Jovians milling about the cramped space, Ami would have felt like she was in an actual jungle. Makoto noted brightly that, when under such societal and spatial stresses, there seemed to be less segregation among the men and women of her people than there had been on her home planet, and she was eager to return at a later time and explore this dynamic further.

They'd nearly made a wide, winding circle around the Moon Palace when Ami and Makoto finally entered the largely sterile and quiet Mercurian Tent City. People drifted by quietly at measured distances from each other, their eyes cast to the ground as they went about their business. The Mercurians would have seemed cold and unfriendly if it weren't for small groups of close friends that could be seen outlined against the featureless limestone walls, laughing and carrying on in much the same way Ami herself had been known to do when she felt at ease.

Here, there was a careful respect of privacy and etiquette. Tidy shops that lined the streets in neat, straight rows made it clear that the Mercurian refugees' greatest strengths were their technological aptitude, and equipment and electronics of all kinds were displayed in abundance.

They didn't have much of a chance to explore this city further though. Ami and Makoto had barely made it three streets in when a piercing scream put the two women on alarm immediately.

Ami and Makoto looked at each other and nodded sharply.

"I know you were hoping this wouldn't happen," Makoto grinned widely, "but maybe we'll beat Rei and Minako-san to the scene after all."

Ami couldn't help but realize that having Makoto at her side did wonders for her confidence, and she nearly smirked. "I'm ready."

In a blue-tinged glow, the petite woman became Mercury. Makoto allowed herself a moment's appreciation before she joined her fellow senshi as Jupiter.

Together, they ran towards the sounds of trouble, and into the waves of retreating refugees. As they fought against the stampede, the crowds finally thinned. Several bodies lay sprawled on the cobblestone street, moist with blood and charred from some kind of energy blast.

"Rei-san isn't here yet, is she?" Mercury asked, frowning at the char marks as they followed the trail of bodies at a sprint.

"I don't think so. Nothing's actually on _fire_ yet." Jupiter spat.

And that's when they found the monsters.

Nearly three dozen of the ghoulish, black-cloaked creatures ghosted over the ground, grabbing people who tried to run past, pulling flailing bodies to their dark figures, eliciting gut-wrenching screams from the victims who paled, silenced, and then were dropped carelessly to the ground bonelessly.

"What-" Mercury asked, pulling to a startled halt.

"It's like it was… sucking the life out of him!" Jupiter skidded to a stop behind Mercury.

Another monster cocked its hands to its chest. In a bright flash of light, a sickly green-tinged energy sparked from its hands and the energy bolt shot at several of the shops. Roofs collapsed, walls tumbled, the escape exit was blocked, a charred mess.

"Another new power." Mercury was breathless.

"Hardly the time to be amazed, Ami-chan!" Jupiter suddenly rushed forward, and finally in range, one of her lightening bolts downed three of the creatures at once. "Over here, you creeps!" She shouted.

The monsters paused. They turned their attention away from the frightened Mercurians that pooled at the blocked exit. There was a pause. Some of the creatures looked to each other. One nodded.

"Telepathy? Are they communicating?" Mercury wondered aloud, even as her haphazardly aimed aqua mist joined Jupiter's next attack to take out another handful of the ghouls. "Are they intelligent enough for-"

But then, two of the monsters' ranks shot the same energy bolt that had so easily taken down the wood and metal shops, right in Mercury's direction.

"Ami-chan!"

Jupiter didn't have a single coherent thought in her addled mind as she threw her body across the short distance that separated her from Mercury.

All she felt was pain when that elemental blast took her in the side. She landed on the ground, her body where Mercury had been, and she curled herself into a tight ball as the energy charge coursed through her body; the powers that fueled it different enough from her own electricity to still have a debilitating effect.

'_No.'_ She lamented as darkness tinged her vision. _'There's still so many of them left.'_

"Makoto! Makoto!" Mercury's voice, especially the familiarity with which she said her name, was reassuring to the Jovian's ears. But she couldn't _see_ her. The familiar tingle of her powers surged around her, and Jupiter noted with reluctance that she was too weak to maintain her transformation.

As the cool fingers of unconsciousness clenched around her, Makoto's last coherent thought was that she'd never wanted for the strength of others; her commander, and even the _Martian,_ as much as she had right then.

* * *

They had an eerie ability to perform tasks in tandem. It was wholly unsettling, but neither Mars nor Venus flinched as their daggers materialized between their fingers. Rei's uncanny ability to sense trouble and to track the monsters had proved true once more, and running at full tilt, their combined attacks of light and fire rushed towards their enemies.

The blast took out at least ten, but there were still so many, all of them converging on Mercury.

Still, the diminutive senshi held her ground. Blasts of water-ice shot into the fray. Those that got close enough met the business end of what, from Mars and Venus' position, appeared to be a short sword forged of ice.

Mars and Venus had recharged, and the crimson and golden warriors released another unrehearsed attack in tandem. More of the banshee-like creatures fell to their deaths.

Mercury was heedless of the assistance she received from her comrades. Battling back the monsters with a frightening fury, her slender body, poised for the kill, crouched protectively in front of Makoto's prone form.

And as she admired the Mercurian with stolen, backwards glances, Venus wasn't sure if even the gruff Martian she fought alongside could manage to look so imposing. She nodded to Mars and they separated, each of them jumping into the crowd of ghouls to aid Mercury.

Venus willed away her dagger and the comforting weight of her chain formed in the palm of her hand. She wasted no time encircling two of the ghouls at once. The chain, a flat, blunt weapon, could also slice effortlessly with a flick of her wrist, but she found that she was met with resistance and realized she had to give a solid tug before the monsters could be sliced in half.

"They've grown stronger!" She cried, even as she sprinted through the blood of those she'd slaughtered to encircle another monster with her deadly chain.

Mars had already discovered the complication. Her burning mandala that had once so effortlessly sent these monsters to a fiery death now required more power and a longer duration in order to accomplish the same end result.

But there were three of them, and only six monsters left, and for all their apparent new strengths, the creatures still fell to the senshi quickly.

In their wake, Mercury was the first to rush to Makoto's side. Kneeling on the grimy cobblestone street, she shook the tall, unresponsive woman by the shoulders. "Makoto-san! Makoto-san!"

A gentle hand rested on Mercury's shoulder, and it was only then that the small woman finally acknowledged her commander. That brief touch had been enough to distract her, and Mars kneeled on Makoto's other side.

"Rei-san…" Ami began.

Mars frowned down at Makoto. Then, she pulled her hand back and swiftly slapped Makoto's pale cheek.

"Rei-san!" Mercury shouted, and it was only Venus' gentle restraint that kept Mercury in place.

Makoto groaned. Her chocolate eyes slowly opened. Finally able to focus, she smirked at Mars. "I never thought I'd be so happy to see _you._"

Mars snorted in return. "I thought there was no excuse for distraction on the battlefield." She stole a discreet glance to the anxious Mercurian before sending Makoto another scathing glare. Her voice lowered. "Don't think I don't know what you did."

Makoto and Mars stared at each other for a long moment. Finally, the two women who had been so eager to hate each other grudgingly smiled at one another. There was a shared understanding there that largely went unnoticed by the others.

Venus straightened. She looked over her shoulder to see some of the injured refugees starting to stir. Her distraction alerted her subordinates to the issue at hand. "I'll call Artemis and have him send damage control, but we need to get out of here now." She said urgently. "The citizens won't understand the role we've played here."

Mercury nodded and tried to help Makoto to her feet. Makoto tried to rise. She winced and doubled over on herself, clutching her injured side. In one swift motion, Mars tapped into the hidden reserves of her senshi strength and picked up Makoto's protesting form.

Together, the senshi ran for the Palace.

* * *

Serenity's dainty hands were curled into white-knuckled fists. There was a slight tremor to her slender frame. She uttered a breathless sigh, and suddenly, her deprived lungs sucked in a hungry breath.

She threaded her fingers through her dark hair and twirled her long locks distractedly.

Like a parting storm, slowly, her dark, glazed eyes cleared.

The Princess could see again.

She glanced at a dainty chronometer that clung loosely to her wrist. "Oh." She said distantly, realizing that she'd been waiting outside the door of her tutor's for nearly an hour. "I guess Ami-chan isn't coming to get me."

She looked down at her other hand then, and as her tense fingers slowly loosened, she puzzled curiously over a crumpled piece of paper, gouged in several places from her fingernails.

It was her homework.

Serenity lost her appetite for a dinner she didn't want to eat alone anyway, and slowly, she drifted towards her rooms.

* * *

Mars hadn't even bothered de-transforming. She was dirty and tired, but after dropping Makoto off at the infirmary, she'd headed right for the rooftop garden, intent on finding answers. Venus had followed wordlessly as her designated failsafe.

The golden warrior had sat behind and to the right of Mars once the crimson warrior had set her fire ablaze, shut her eyes, and lost herself to the trance that only she could fall into.

And there Venus sat - waiting, watching. Her legs eventually went numb beneath her, and still, her gaze remained on Mars' rigid form. It wasn't long before she was chastising herself, reprimanding herself sharply, for though the seriousness of their task was all too obvious, she couldn't help but want to _touch_ the Martian.

'_Control yourself, Minako. This is no way for the leader of the senshi to act.'_

A hand that had hovered over Mars' shoulder, a hand Venus hadn't even realized had wandered, snapped back to her lap where she restrained it tightly with the other.

As the orange-red flames threw their flickering light against the crimson warrior's pale skin, Venus wondered idly why Mars frowned so suddenly.

'_I hate to admit it,' _Mars thought to herself, wondering at the absence of Venus' touch, _'but I concentrate better the closer Minako is to me. But… something tells me she wouldn't want to hear that.'_

The Martian forced herself to double her efforts on the task at hand, for a reverse aural tracking wasn't easy under the best of circumstances. Her disappointment with Minako would have to wait.

Unlike her previous attempts, the monsters had already attacked, and as a result, the fire was quiet as she searched for the faint threads of their aural signatures.

Although the fire was quiet, it wasn't _silent_. Mars furrowed her brow, grabbed hold of the faint thread that lingered, and she pulled, unraveling and following that sickly energy she associated with the monsters. Slowly, that energy began to shift, though it was no less unpleasant. Blindly, Mars thrust a corporeal hand behind her to pull Venus into the non-corporeal plane.

Venus didn't hesitate, and was quick to slip her gloved hand into Mars'.

_With hearing that spanned an untold distance of the non-corporeal plane, Mars could hear Venus gasp, and she knew the other woman felt it too._

_First, the aura was impersonal, cold. It was a façade, a mask. Mars kept unraveling the thread, even as it grew fainter and fainter. She was following it to another plane completely, dangerously straddling the edge of different realities. _

_Then, the energy shifted again. It was old. Dark. Ancient, and powerful. All she could see was an ocean of endless black, and the faint remnants of the thread she followed. It was becoming nearly invisible._

'_Just a little more…'_

_But then, that energy intensified. It pulsed wildly. The thread disintegrated completely. If she wasn't quick, they could be trapped in the hellish limbo…_

'_Venus.' She was Mars' only concern._

_Something from the darkness was coming for them, and with all her strength, Mars retreated, pushing Venus' aural presence in front of her, even as she felt the taint of those cold, ancient fingers wrap around her… and as the pain of the frigid touch became too much to bear, and she succumbed to silence, Mars wondered if Venus felt the touch of that tainted grasp as well. _

There was a brilliant flash of light that rivaled even the glow of their transformations, and the next thing Venus knew, she was sprawled on her back in the taller grasses outside the trodden circle, knocked nearly twenty feet from where they'd been, Mars' limp form strewn atop of her.

And in the center of the clearing, the fire was raging.

Firstly, she was worried for the Martian. The crimson warrior's face was contorted in a pained grimace, sweat beaded across her brow, she choked on a breath deep in her throat. Venus shook Mars violently to no avail.

And that was when she eyed the wild fire. Even without the acolyte's mystical abilities, Venus could feel the anger, the hate that fueled that blaze. Gently, Venus rolled Mars onto her back, and with unwavering caramel eyes locked on the fire, she rose to her feet. Slowly, she approached the roaring fire, its untamed winds whipping around her frantically, tangling her golden curls, and she stared into the flames with a strength and confidence she hadn't known herself to possess.

"You will not have her!" Venus shouted.

The flames howled wildly, they surged once more, dancing higher, as though they might dispute the Venusian's claim…

And then they simply winked out of existence.

The silence that was left in the blaze's wake was nearly deafening and even Venus' quietly whispered word sounded much too loud in her own ears. "What…"

"Minako…"

But Mars was calling to her. And whether the crimson warrior's recovery was a result of Venus' bold proclamation, or something else entirely, Venus was sprinting into the tall grasses. She knelt by her subordinate's side and her fingers constricted around Mars' upper arms with a nearly uncontrollable strength.

"Promise me!" Venus shouted, her lips curling into a snarl. "Promise me you won't _ever_ do that again!"

Dazed from returning to consciousness, Mars could only stare dumbly in the wake of Venus' desperate intensity. Ultimately, Mars chose silence, for her skills were too important to their Princess' safety for her to withhold them. She couldn't promise such a thing.

And Venus knew it.

Slowly, the golden warrior released the tension on Mars' arms. A stark contrast to her previous actions, her shaky hands gently pushed feathered bangs away from the Martian's dark eyes.

"What was that, Rei?"

"It was… the energy of the old Palace."

Only, that cryptic response didn't mean much more to Venus than Mars' frightening powers had. And Mars looked exhausted. She took several labored breaths, and in her weakness, her transformation slipped.

Rei had put up nearly more of an argument than Makoto had earlier that day, but Venus had left little room for argument and she had half-carried Rei back to her suite. Placated with at least being allowed to walk, Rei tried her best to relay the findings of their foray into the aural plane to her commander as they limped back to senshi wing of the castle.

Venus had done her best to understand and interpret Rei's fading, incoherent words, until finally, she managed to tuck the other woman into her bed.

"I know it's not your favorite place in the castle, but you'll stay here, and you'll rest."

That, Venus had said, before she shut the lights and the door behind her, was an order.

* * *

She wasn't sure how long she'd been there, and was only vaguely aware that her feet had led her back to the scene of the crime some time ago.

Slowly, not unlike Rei might have, Minako had taken a seat, folding her legs underneath her at the very edge of the trodden circle. She had stared at the charred mess the raging flames had left behind – a circle of black ash that extended far beyond the stone fire pit's boundaries.

But she wasn't here to send her consciousness to the four ends of the Moon. She was here to send it to a place far worse. For Minako's own heart was just as frightening a place to her as the nightmare sea of blackness Mars had shown her.

And not unlike the mystery surrounding the monsters, Minako's heart proved to be just as reluctant to surrender its secrets.

At length, she was finally interrupted by a presence she knew lingered and waited for her attention, a presence she had been unready to acknowledge.

Artemis had always known where to find her, but then, she supposed she could be awfully predictable, too.

"Minako… we need to talk."

There was a long pause before Minako opened her caramel eyes, and the small, white cat fidgeted under her cool gaze where he sat at the other end of the circle of ash.

"The details of today's findings are in my report." She said coolly.

"I know. I've read it." Artemis replied curtly, and drew himself up to his full height. He padded across the cool ash, leaving tiny, feline paw prints in his wake.

"I'm not here about your report," Artemis said, watching as Minako's cool demeanor slipped. "I'm here to talk to you about Rei."

Minako's lips curled dangerously. "I think I've had enough to deal with today-"

"This is important, Minako." Artemis' voice was sharp and recriminating.

Minako stared at her hands in her lap for some time. After a long moment, she steepled her fingers together. "Am I so easy to read, Artemis?"

"You're _Venusian_, Minako."

The leader of the senshi snorted. She finally met Artemis' crystal blue eyes. "I think… I think I'm falling in –"

"No." The cat nearly hissed. "You're not in love, you're _obsessed_ with her, Mina-chan. That's all it is. She is not your _Sai Sushuri_."

"But what if she is?"

Artemis bristled at the uncharacteristic melancholy in his charge's voice. Sinking to his haunches in front of her, he rested a paw on her knee.

"You obsess, Minako. You fall for every good looking creature that crosses your path. You fall fast, you fall hard, and then you lose interest and wander away to find something new. Just like every other Venusian does."

"Or as they do until they find their _Sushuri_."

"Stop saying that!" The Lunar advisor nearly bared his fangs. "This is hardly the time for a silly Venusian fantasy to be derailing you, Minako. Have you forgotten your promise to your people? Your promise to _yourself_?"

Minako straightened stiffly. "Of course not!" She barked.

"Then this is not the time to be pretending you've found true love."

Minako's caramel eyes hardened and Artemis cursed himself for the role he'd been forced to play. The role Minako herself had long ago assigned him. When he spoke again, the sharp edge to his voice had withered away.

"Rei is no different than any of your other flings, Mina-chan. You'll tire of her in a few days. I'm sure of it."

Minako's low chuckle was hollow. "Maybe you're right." She said quietly. "Maybe I _am_ fickle."

"You're _Venusian_." Artemis repeated weakly. "And the last thing you need right now is to get emotionally involved with a Martian."

"What… what do you mean?"

"Surely you know of the Martians and their unending devotion. They are a fiercely private race, but they can be fiercely passionate once they let someone in."

Minako's hands fidgeted in her lap. She had, in fact, learned that already. "You… don't say."

"Ah. You know, it's said that once they've attached themselves to a person, they can never let go."

"Is that so?" The leader of the senshi frowned. _'Am I doing Rei a disservice?' _She asked herself. _'Am I fated to betray her with my fickle genes?'_

"Minako-chan?" Artemis found it difficult to meet his charge's eyes, for he knew he'd planted the seed of doubt, and he couldn't bear to see the product of his effort.

At that moment, he hated himself.

"All I'm saying is to remember your mission. And I'm not talking only about your mission to the Princess, but your mission to _yourself_, the one you left Venus hoping to achieve. Have fun. See Rei if you must. But don't get too attached."

"You're… you're right." She could allow herself that small consolation, couldn't she? It didn't have to be over between her and Rei… at least not yet. Minako smiled a plastic smile, one that only Artemis and maybe one other person knew enough to see through.

But she didn't have to fool Artemis _or_ Rei.

She only had to fool herself.

And it wasn't long after she'd showered and slipped into something more… comfortable, that she let herself into Rei's room once more.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Trouble in paradise? Why yes. I'm new at the concept of this much angst – I like to get my main characters together quickly, but PGSM-verse Rei and Minako don't seem to allow for that, now do they? More on Minako's mission to herself in the next chapter.

The term Sai Sushuri is a goddess that corresponds to Venus/Aphrodite, and means Divine Love. More on this, and corresponding terms later. The terms come from Aristasian belief systems, and as luck with have it, some of their goddesses correspond to some of the Greek and Roman gods.

OOO

Preview, Chapter 9: That Thing You Do

Rei examined the woman who stood before them, the woman that seemed to have derailed Minako, and the similarities between the two were immediately apparent. Her light, caramel hair and taller frame were slightly different, but their upturned nose and high cheekbones were very similar. Rei frowned derisively, however, at the amount of makeup and jewelry the woman was covered in.

And the woman frowned right back at her. Her hazel eyes traveled down Rei's body, and she grinned darkly when she saw the numerous bags that the Martian held. She turned her righteous smirk to Minako.

"Minako-chan," she said languidly, though there was no affection in her voice, "I see the Palace has treated you well. You even have a new _pet_ to carry your shopping?"

Minako could feel the flames of Rei's anger, but hers burned hotter. She stayed Rei with a hand to her elbow.

"She's _not_ my _pet_, Miaka, she's my…"

Minako caught herself, and sent her long fingernails into her palm as a sharp reminder. _'She's my what? My equal? My soulmate? My Sushuri?'_

"She's my _subordinate_." Minako finally answered, drawing herself up to her full height.


	9. Chapter 9

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 9: That Thing You Do  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Ami became acutely aware, only entirely too late after the fact, that she had left her Princess waiting for her after the completion of her studies. It had caused her no small amount of distress - wondering what Serenity thought about her disappearance. Ami had considered leaving sickbay, finding Serenity and apologizing for her tardiness.

But that tardiness eventually became abandonment. For as concerned about Serenity as she was, Ami found she couldn't leave Makoto's side.

Makoto had insisted that she would be fine – the wounds she'd suffered looked worse than they really were, and surely, with her accelerated senshi-granted healing, she would be fine in a day's time. The doctors had tentatively agreed, but had confined her to bed rest.

And despite Makoto's weak protests, Ami had stayed by her side.

As the Jovian slept soundly through the night, exhausted by the injury she had suffered on Ami's behalf, the events of the battle with the ghouls replayed itself mercilessly in Ami's mind's eye. As the hours of the night melted away, despite her best efforts to derail such thoughts, she found herself reliving the skirmish time and again.

But no matter how many times she replayed the battle, she wasn't sure what had startled her the most: Jupiter's willingness to sacrifice herself for her sake, or her own intensity to Jupiter's actions.

Serenity swept into the hospital room early that morning. Ami had been tentative, expecting recrimination and disappointment from her Princess, but she was rendered nearly speechless as Serenity spun around the room in a daze, proclaiming her excitement that 'party' planning for the Terran ambassadors had been accelerated and that she would be meeting the Prince of the Earth in only a couple short weeks.

Serenity had paid no attention to her wounded guardian who slept on the hospital bed. She insisted that Ami simply must help her with planning for the Terran visit, and then she skipped out of the room.

Rei had stopped by some time after. True to her form, the Martian had spared no words. She slid the door open and observed the patient from the hallway with a critical eye. Then, with a reassuring nod to Ami, she departed as quickly as she had appeared.

Finally, with just enough time between the arrival of her last guest so as to seem coincidental, Minako had entered the room. Silently, the leader of the senshi sat in an empty chair next to Ami, and had joined in silent vigil over their sleeping comrade.

* * *

The exhaustion induced haze had faded. Makoto could hear the steady beeping of a machine, and could smell the sterile stench of the hospital. Her warrior's senses alerted her to the presence of others. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

"Minako-san?" She asked.

The leader of the senshi grinned widely, amused at Makoto's undisguised displeasure that she hadn't woken up to see someone else hovering over her. "You gave us quite the scare there, Makoto-san."

To this, Makoto offered her commander a dashing smile. "There's no need to worry about me. I'm stronger than that."

"I know." Minako lay a reassuring on Makoto's blanket covered arm. "But we were none the less concerned on your behalf."

The tall woman blushed in slight awe, and Minako began to direct that affection to the appropriate recipient. She leaned to the side and indicated the person who sat next to her. "In fact, Ami-chan stayed next to you all night."

Makoto lifted her head from her small pillow, and it was then that she saw the face she had wanted to see when she woke. "Ami-chan…" She said tentatively.

A bright blush on her cheeks, Ami averted her gaze and fingered the edge of thin blanket that covered Makoto's tall, slim frame.

"Well," Minako stood with a flourish and smiled at her subordinates. "I'll take my leave now. You be sure to take it easy today, Makoto-san."

Makoto nodded sharply and cast a thankful glance at her commander for her gentle subtlety. But once Minako had left, Makoto was left wondering how to break the ice with the closed off Mercurian.

"The monsters, there were so many of them-"

"Venus and Mars came to my rescue." Ami said quickly. "The creatures seemed to have increased their strength, and were more difficult to defeat, but we managed to dispatch them in their entirety. The threat has passed."

"Ah." Makoto said, sticking to Ami's example and not wanting to overstep her bounds. "I remember now. Mars slapped me pretty damn hard." She rubbed her cheek distractedly, and finally, Ami found the courage to look at her.

And somehow, they managed a quiet chuckle at the absurdity of it all.

That quiet laughter eventually faded to the silence of sickbay, and Makoto struggled to maintain conversation. "Thank you, Ami-chan. For staying with me."

Makoto had nearly stepped on ice to thin, and the flighty Mercurian was only stayed by the disarming smile Makoto offered. Ami dug deep, and found a topic that steered clear of her jumbled emotions, but which was equally as important. Hesitantly, she pulled a small, plastic device from her lap and held it on the side of the bed.

"What is that?" Makoto asked.

"It's a diagnostic tool of Mercurian design. It allowed me to run several tests on you while you were recovering. I was able to gain some valuable knowledge on senshi healing abilities."

"…oh."

Makoto's disappointment went unnoticed.

Ami scrolled through the small display screen with an intense concentration. "As we had guessed, the senshi body is apt to shut down when overtaxed, and has the ability to heal at an accelerated rate. In fact, my calculations show that your recovery took place seventy eight point three percent faster than that of a normal person."

"I see." Makoto said flatly.

Still captured by the readouts on the device that the Jovian couldn't even begin to comprehend, Makoto did, at least, understand Ami's thoughtful frown.

"What is it?"

"I was just wondering, now that you're conscious and awake, if you would allow me to see the wound site so I can scan it once more?"

Makoto smiled handsomely. "My approval didn't seem to matter to you last night."

Ami's gaze shot up from her device and she blushed hotly. Makoto laughed good naturedly and pulled the thin blanket away from her body. Rolling over facing away from Ami, she presented her once wounded side.

Despite her shyness, Ami did not hesitate to lift the bottom of Makoto's thin upper garment, and she gently peeled away a piece of gauze to expose Makoto's wound site. She was unsurprised to find it mostly healed, with the exception of some lingering redness, and her device ghosted slowly above the new skin.

'_It looks so soft.'_

Ami caught herself too late – the fingers of her free hand were lightly trailing over Makoto's ribcage. She could even feel goosebumps forming on Makoto's fresh skin that was, indeed, exceptionally soft.

"You're very gentle." Makoto's voice was quiet, and her eyes drifted closed. "You would have made a great doctor."

Ami's tentative touch withered away. Makoto sensed her take a step backwards, and she rolled onto her back to catch Ami's downcast expression. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have…"

"No." Ami clutched her device in a white knuckled grip. "It's okay. Really."

The Jovian pressed forward. "I know you said you wanted to be a doctor, and that you were recruited to be a senshi instead. But why can't you be both?"

"Be both?" Ami pulled her gaze from the floor. "Wouldn't a separate study interfere with my duties as senshi?"

Makoto brightened when she saw that hint of hopefulness, that spark of interest return to Ami's eyes. And she wanted nothing more than to see Ami's happy. Even if she had to use their Princess as a means to that end.

"Well, look at how useful your skills were when I got injured. What if it was _Serenity-chan_ who got injured? Who would care for her? Shouldn't it be one of her trusted senshi?"

"Serenity-chan?" Ami asked slowly, for as soon as she had heard that name, she cringed. Exactly who did she want to use her skills for anymore? What had happened to that feeling of bliss every time she heard her Princess' name?

Surely nothing had changed, had it? Her Princess, after all, was not only her priority in oath, but the priority in her heart.

'_Isn't she?'_

* * *

The next several days were relatively uneventful. Despite Rei's attempts at further tracking the monsters, none could be found, and the Moon Palace and its Tent Cities proved quiet and peaceful.

Serenity threw herself whole heartedly into planning for the upcoming delegations with Earth, often times pulling Ami along with her. She hadn't said a word about the Mercurian's prior absence, nor the Jovian's injuries.

Except for regularly scheduled sparring and karaoke sessions, Makoto wasn't often seen. Serenity was very vocal with her suspicions that she was spending her time with Motoki, and this theory went largely undisputed.

It was still a nightly event that Minako snuck into Rei's room, though one couldn't necessarily call it sneaking if it was expected, and every early morning similarly saw Minako 'sneaking' out before one could properly call the time 'morning'.

But it was one such night through that eerie silence and sense of normalcy that Rei and Minako's normal routine was disrupted.

* * *

Her bleary eyes opened slowly and Rei cursed softly. The sound that should have been so easily identified as a knock on the door was muddled in her brain, and she blamed Minako who slept soundly at her side for dulling her senses so thoroughly.

Reaching blindly in the dark, Rei located a robe and threw it over her body to cover her nakedness. She stifled an exclamation when she stubbed her toe on a foot of the bed. Sparing a moment to shush her waking lover, Rei stumbled through the darkness. She swung the bedroom door nearly shut behind her and strode across her small antechamber, her bare toes curling in the thick rug beneath her feet. She managed to flip on a low end table light before finally making it to the door.

The powers she had summoned, the flames of Mars that were at the ready at the tips of her fingers in the rush of confusion and protectiveness she felt at the late night intrusion, fizzled away abruptly when she opened the door in the slightest to identify the intruder.

Rei's hands fell to her side and the door continued to swing open. Though she had never met the woman, Rei dropped to her knee in immediate recognition.

"Queen Serenity."

The tall woman, so similar to her daughter with her straight, black hair and piercingly dark eyes, smiled slightly. There was a moment's pause while the Queen of the Moon examined the woman who knelt before her.

"Thank you for your loyalty, Princess of Mars, but would you please allow me entrance?"

Rei looked up then, surprised to find dark circles under the Queen's eyes and a strained tension that was telling in her pursed brow. She shook herself and jumped to her feet, clearing the way to allow the Queen entrance.

Queen Serenity stepped through the threshold, her simple white gown trailing over the thick rug. Like any good Lunarian or Venusian, she eyed the room's tightly closed curtains with slight distaste before she took a seat in a stiff chair next to the dim lamp. She gestured to the rigid Martian, indicating the seat across from her. Hesitantly, Rei shut the door and took her cue, sitting stiffly with hands folded properly on her lap.

"I apologize for disrupting your rest, Mars Rei, as much as I apologize for not appearing before you and your comrades sooner. I'm sure you can imagine that I am torn in many different directions, as we search for a new hope for our fractured nations." The Queen smiled, and was relieved to see Rei relax in the slightest. "Even still, I lament that I haven't had time for pleasantries."

"You need not apologize, my Queen."

"Do not stand on formality, Rei." Queen Serenity's smile softened, and it was a genuine gesture that Rei had not seen her daughter duplicate. "My silence to the arrival of yourself and Jupiter Makoto, and indeed, to the creation of the brave team of warriors that have pledged themselves to the service of the Princess and the Moon Kingdom, has been an error. I know my citizens and the refugees have been weary, not only of the attacks by the strange monsters that plague our satellite, but of the mysterious vigilantes that combat them."

Rei nodded smally, and Queen Serenity leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees as she tried to bridge the gap between herself and the Martian warrior.

"I thought it a grand idea to introduce the four of you as senshi via a proper Lunarian ball. We haven't had one in so very long, and I would like to host it shortly so that its importance is not overshadowed by the start of diplomatic discussions with the Terrans. Not only would the ball clear your reputations with those you protect, but it would raise morale where such celebrations have long been deferred due to more… pressing matters."

The Queen found it hard to uphold her hopeful expression in the face of the silent Martian. "Do you agree, Rei?"

Rei picked at the sleeve of her robe. "With all due respect, your highness, I would say that such proceedings are not mine to agree nor disagree, and that information of more pressing matters is the real reason for your visit."

Serenity retreated, pulling back to an upright position, yet she smiled in appreciation. "I see the rumors of your sharp tongue were true."

Rei looked up then, and had the decency to look sheepish. "I meant no offen-"

"None taken." The Queen was swiftly reassuring. "Your blunt manner is much appreciated."

Queen Serenity was silent a long moment as though inwardly composing herself. "You are correct. I have come to you with an ulterior motive. It is word of your spiritual abilities that has drawn me to you, Mars Rei. Your skill in tracking the monsters has been an unexpected boon to the safety of my Kingdom, but I must know… can you see anything about the _future_? About my Kingdom? About Serenity, my daughter?"

"I am… not a fortuneteller." Rei said haltingly, unable to hold the Queen's hopeful gaze. "Though not for lack of trying."

"Anything," Serenity said leadingly, "is there anything you can tell me?"

"The future is… unwritten, and cannot be narrowed down to the fate of one person. I've tried already. Trust me, I've tried, but I can see nothing more than a place where a great darkness and a great light coexist."

"A great darkness and a great light?"

Rei bowed her head slightly. "I'm sorry, my Queen. I do not have the answers you seek."

Serenity smiled softly. "You have a knack for ambiguity, my child."

Rei managed a weak smile. "My powers can be a double edged sword, your highness. And by definition, they are vague and ambiguous, and are not usually clear in their intent until it's too late." She paused thoughtfully, and shifted in her seat. "If I may?"

"Please, go ahead."

"The monsters. They are increasing their attacks, and they are getting stronger. Do you-"

"I have the best tacticians and scientists working around the clock, trying to find answers to the questions we all share. Trust me when I say that I will go to any measures to protect my people and my daughter."

Rei deferred to Queen Serenity's feint. "Of course, my Queen."

The two women stared at each other for some time, each with questions unwilling to ask, as they both knew that the other would be unwilling to answer, and it was abundantly clear that any further conversation would simply result in a similar stalemate.

Finally, Queen Serenity smiled, and in that gesture Rei thought she might have seen Princess at her best and she found herself responding in kind to that fleeting expression. Slowly, the Queen rose to her feet.

"Thank you for your time, Mars Rei, and I look forward to seeing you next at the ball, this time, under better circumstances."

Rei stood, and bowed her head. "And I as well, my Queen."

With an elegant nod, Serenity proceeded to let herself out. With one hand on the doorknob, she paused and turned back to the Martian. "Oh, and Rei?"

"Yes, my Queen?"

Queen Serenity's gaze darted to the slightly parted bedroom door at the rear of the antechamber, and she smiled widely. "Please tell Minako that she's she doing an excellent job as leader."

From the direction of the bedroom, there was a loud crash and a stifled exclamation. Hiding a mischievous smile behind her hand, Queen Serenity let herself out into the corridor with a slight chuckle.

* * *

Apparently, finding an appropriate dress to wear for the following day's ball, to be held on behalf of the honor of the senshi, was to take precedence over all else that day, trumping all things from training to tactical theory, even as far as to cancel the Princess' normally scheduled appointment at Crown Karaoke.

Normally, dress shopping would not rank highly on any list of Rei's, but she quickly found that anything, even _shopping_ with Minako, wasn't so terrible after all. Naturally, the Venusian had chosen the Tent City of her peoples to find the right gown, and the experience had been nearly overwhelming for the reclusive Martian.

At length, the flimsy, wooden dressing stall door opened, and Minako twirled out into the small hallway, arms outstretched, her caramel highlighted hair spinning along with the long skirt of a brilliant dress of black and gold.

"Well?" She asked leadingly.

"Perfect." Rei said in a stupefied daze, one leg crossed over the other where she sat in a small chair. Then she caught herself, blushing slightly. "The _dress_." She clarified gruffly. "The dress is perfect."

Minako leaned down, careful to give Rei an ample view of the plunging neckline the golden dress so eagerly boasted, and she clasped Rei's hands in hers. "Good. Then you can help me get _out_ of it."

Rei's blush deepened. She pulled her eyes from Minako's cleavage and cast her gaze to the people who milled about the tight quarters of the dressing room. But when Minako tugged her to her feet and pulled her inside her small changing stall, Minako's lips and tongue and hands thoroughly distracting her, Rei found that she quickly ceased to care.

* * *

Her face still slightly flushed, her dark eyes darting to and fro, certain that she was being stared at for their unorthodox use of the dressing room, Rei nearly ran right into Minako as they exited the store and filed out into the busy street. Her first instinct was to chide her commander for tripping her up, but one look at Minako's suddenly cold, caramel eyes stayed her ready insult.

Rei examined the woman who stood before them, the woman that seemed to have derailed Minako, and the similarities between the two were immediately apparent. Her light, caramel hair and taller frame were slightly different, but their upturned noses and high cheekbones were very similar. Rei frowned derisively, however, at the amount of makeup and jewelry the woman was covered in.

And the woman frowned right back at her. Her hazel eyes traveled down Rei's body, and she grinned darkly when she saw the numerous bags that Rei held. She turned her righteous smirk to Minako.

"Minako-chan," she said languidly, though there was no affection in her voice, "I see the Palace has treated you well. You even have a new _pet_ to carry your shopping?"

Minako could feel the flames of Rei's anger, but hers burned hotter. She stayed Rei with a hand to her elbow.

"She's _not_ my _pet_, Miaka, she's my…"

Minako caught herself, and sent her long fingernails into her palm as a sharp reminder. _'She's my what? My equal? My soulmate? My Sushuri?'_

"She's my _subordinate_." Minako finally answered, drawing herself up to her full height.

"Ah, I see." Miaka cast her hazel gaze over both women critically. "Regardless of your status, you don't seem to be doing much with yourself since Mother sent you away to be a senshi. Looks to me like you're just buying dresses and going to parties, after all. So much for you being _better_ than the rest of us."

Minako fumed, but found herself at a loss. She trapped her lower lip between her teeth to stave off her frustration. Miaka smirked triumphantly, a bitter parody of the lighthearted grin Minako was so easily capable of.

And as easily as the antagonistic Venusian had entered and interrupted their life, she was gone, pushing past the two women and losing herself to the crowds.

Rei's fingers barely touched her commander's lightly trembling arm. "Minako?" She asked tentatively.

But Minako shrugged away from her touch, and without so much as a backwards glance, she, too, slipped into the crowd, briskly heading in the opposite direction.

Undeterred, Rei secured her hold on Minako's bags and gave chase, threading through the crowd easily, always keeping her gaze trained on her commander's retreating form. Minako wasn't running away from _her_, she knew that, but her sense of urgency to catch up was nonetheless intense.

For her part, while Minako knew the area well enough, she trusted that Rei would have no trouble tracking her.

That was the Martian in her, after all.

She found a relatively quiet spot in a courtyard set back off one of the side streets, and she came to a halt alongside the arching trunk of a leaning palm tree. Her hand idly touched its rough bark and she looked forward blankly, the elaborately painted mural of the sun painted on a building across the way not so much as registering.

She felt Rei's hand on her shoulder a moment later.

"She was your sister?"

"_Half_ sister."

There was a strained silence, with only the slightly muted bustle of the Tent City's commotion to fill the gap, and Minako sighed. It wasn't in her nature to pry, and so Rei didn't ask the question that seemed so obvious, but that didn't make Minako want to open up to Rei any less.

"I was… one of many daughters." Minako said haltingly. "Venusians rarely know their fathers, and even the Queen, my _mother_," she spat, "has many bastard children, to include myself."

"Minako-"

The Venusian held her hand up in a silencing gesture, and Rei deferred to her will.

"It's not an aspect of my culture I particularly care for. The stereotype of my people is that of a fickle race that is rarely serious. It's something I'd like to change. Because of that, when the Lunar herald came to my mother, and asked for one of her daughters to be named as senshi, she was all too eager to get rid of me.

"We never did get along well, mother and I. But the title of senshi, and then the rank of leader, showed me that I could be _better_ than her. Better than _all_ of my siblings. I intended to show them, to show all my peoples, that one could both serve their planet and their kingdom, and yet still be a model Venusian.

"I always felt like I had to compete with my half sisters. They were always prettier, more skilled, more valued than me… I thought I'd show them." Minako's hands balled into white knuckled fists, her lower lip trembled.

Rei snorted. "I certainly wouldn't think that your half sister is as…"

Rei paused. Her light touch on her commander's shoulder dropped and she moved to circle her arm around Minako's waist. She was couldn't meet Minako's watery gaze. She knew it was awkward, she knew that _she_ was awkward. But showing outward support wasn't the easiest thing for her to come by.

"Rei?"

The Martian frowned darkly, her gaze distant. "I find it impossible to believe that that woman is in _any_ way better than you."

"Rei…"

A light blush dusted Rei's cheeks, and finally, she turned shy eyes to the woman in her arms. "Perhaps you've taken all of your family's good traits and left the bad ones behind with them, where they belong."

Minako rewarded Rei with a wide smile, and for a scant moment, the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. "I'd like to think I have, yes."

In the ensuing silence, Rei stiffened, having wandered entirely too far from her comfort zone. Smiling, Minako chose the easiest path to both change the subject and get a rise out of Rei, a tried and true method that had never failed her.

"In any case, it's more than I can say about _you_. You've got _plenty_ of bad traits."

"Hey!"

The two women found themselves laughing, but it was a short reprieve, and Minako eventually grew serious once more. "What about you?" She asked. "What about _your_ past?"

Rei's secure hold around Minako withered, but didn't release completely. Minako realized that despite the humid warmth, as she waited for a response she didn't think would come, she suddenly felt cold. She released a sigh of relief when Rei finally parted her lips to respond.

"I was shunned because I was a daughter, and for the gifts I possessed that my family didn't understand." Rei stiffened as she thought, _'The same gift that Minako readily accepted without the slightest amount of fear.' _

"What else can you tell me about your past?"

"My past is irrelevant."

Minako frowned at Rei's closed nature and spun in her loose embrace to face her. "What's your deal with avoiding the past?"

Rei shrugged. Her arms left Minako entirely and fell to her side. "The past is dead to me."

"How can you let a part of yourself go like that? How can you be so simple?"

Rei turned fierce eyes on her commander. "How can you be so _complicated_?"

Minako shut her mouth so quickly that her teeth clacked together loudly. She had to stop and think about that. Could it be possible for her to live in the moment or had she condemned herself to muddle in the past?

But Rei's anger spurred her forward, and she barked, "Besides, what's your deal with avoiding the _future_?"

Minako frowned darkly. "Why do you always do that – turn my questions against me?"

"Why do you always have to be the one asking the questions?"

"Fine. I'll bite." Minako sighed and tossed her hair over a shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"Your singular need to be leader of the senshi and nothing else, your obviously self imposed need to show up your family. You're so wrapped up in the importance of your past and present that you never look forward to your _future_."

Confusion fought for dominance with Minako's sudden anger, and Rei knew she had made her point. Her sharp tongue delivered the final blow.

"The future looks pretty bleak. Wouldn't you agree? For all the stereotypes you embody, your single-mindedness is a very un-Venusian trait, wouldn't you say?"

"Eh?"

"You like singing. You like dancing. I know you like _other_ things. Haven't you ever thought about allowing yourself anything outside your title of leader?"

"There's… there's only one thing I want outside of my title."

Rei took that step forward that neither had been willing to reclaim, and her hands found Minako's waist once more. "Tell me. What do you want, Minako?"

And as Minako tried her best not to loose herself to Rei's intense, dark gaze, she found her thoughts spiraling out of control. _'I've always dreamed of one day finding my counterpart, my sushuri. But how could I possibly have both that and my duty? My mission to myself?'_

Her train of thought was growing more and more dangerous, and finally, Minako scowled. "It doesn't matter what I want," she spat, "because I can't have _both_."

Minako twisted away from Rei's touch then, and she kept on going. "Let's go." She said sharply over her shoulder.

Rei knew she'd lost the battle. But she picked up her commander's bags and she followed silently, fuming several steps behind Minako.

* * *

They'd left the uncomfortable conversation behind them, and amid light hearted and carefree conversation - as though the baring of their souls and subsequent argument hadn't occurred at all - they started to make their way back to the palace. The sudden shift hadn't been so easy for Rei, but she had accommodated Minako, who seemed remarkably adept at such a coping mechanism.

Rei's pride might have been chafed for having to carry Minako's bags, but now that she'd been given the opportunity to thoroughly appreciate it without having the distraction of one crisis or another, Rei found herself distracted by the environment of the Venusian Tent City instead.

Trailing a scant half step behind her commander so as not to lose her in the busy throng, Rei looked at colorful shops, colorful buildings, and colorful people.

And Minako didn't like that. Especially when Rei's eyes seemed to linger on a shapely Lunarian for a little too long…

A small squeak escaped from Rei when she found herself being tugged down a tight alley between rows of shops. She shrugged out of the tight grip Minako had maintained on her wrist.

"What are you doing? I almost dropped your bags on the ground." Rei said sourly.

Minako stepped forward with a predator's glare. "I don't care about the bags. I want your undivided attention."

Rei blushed softly at Minako's sudden intensity. "You're not going to do that _thing_, are you?" She asked, even as her free hand unconsciously slipped under the loose hem of Minako's blouse and her fingers splayed across the small of the other woman's back.

"What _thing_? I do _lots_ of things. Can you narrow it down a little?"

Rei growled. "That _thing_ you do with your teeth. It drives me crazy."

"This?" Minako asked, and leaned up to kiss Rei. Her tongue lapped at the corner of the Martian's mouth before she gently captured Rei's bottom lip with her teeth.

Rei's breath hot against her mouth, Minako pulled away slowly. "You mean _that_ thing?"

"Why do you have to be so frustrating?" Rei exhaled with a sigh. Her fingers bit into Minako's hip and she pushed the slightly smaller woman back against a crumbling limestone wall, aiming her lips for the sweet spot where the Venusian's shoulder and neck met. Minako eagerly accommodated her by tipping her head back to allow Rei greater access.

Between hot, wet kisses, and through the fog of desire that threatened to overcome her, Rei asked, "You're more capricious than normal today. What's gotten into you?"

Minako laced the fingers of her free hand between Rei's where they rested on her thigh. "You mean besides _you_?"

Rei nipped at her commander's neck lightly. "You're terrible. First in the dressing room, and now in public?"

"In public?" Minako asked through a needy moan. "You don't really think I'd let you take me _here_, do you?"

Rei paused in her ministrations. She pulled back and caught Minako's mischievous grin and snorted lightly. _"Tease."_

Minako laughed melodically, released her lover, and together, they hastily rushed back to the Palace.

* * *

It would only be hours later, after the proper morning hour had long since passed, when Rei would wake, cold and lonely in her empty bed, that she'd realize that Minako had a propensity to hide her problems behind a veil of desire.

* * *

Preview: Chapter 10: A Lover Scorned

His name went in one ear and out the other; a well-bred Venusian Adonis that even her sisters or mother would have bragged about dancing with. But as soon as Minako had nodded her acceptance and extended her hand to allow his soft fingers to thread between her own, a calloused hand seized her wrist.

And she didn't need to turn her head over her shoulder to know that Rei had made her move, and nor did she dare – for she knew she wouldn't be able to mask the relief she felt. She trained her gaze instead on her suitor's growing look of discomfort, for the Martian didn't need words to convey her intent; her dark expression was telling enough.

Seconds later, the blonde man wordlessly released Minako's hand, and with retreating steps that didn't dare turn his back to Rei, he disappeared amongst the crowd.

Minako found herself being roughly pulled through the crowd and was yanked into an only slightly less populated corner. The diversion had been all she'd needed to collect herself, and once she managed to reestablish her least favorite, but most necessary mask, she turned on Rei, her lips a thin, white line.

"Do I have to remind you?" Minako hissed through bared teeth, holding Rei's icy stare. "You have no claim on me, Mars."

Rei released her bruising hold on Minako's wrist, but the Venusian wasn't so quick to retract her hand. Minako looked away quickly, however, her brow tightly creased.

"If there's nothing else, you're dismissed."

"You wouldn't _dare_ abuse your station like that." Rei growled.

Minako looked up through her bangs. "Wouldn't I?"

Rei frowned darkly. An eternity passed. The first violin wailed. She snorted, and in a blur of crimson, she was gone.


	10. Chapter 10

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 10: A Lover Scorned  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Each of them was anxious where they stood before a ballroom full of people. Had it not been for their senshi strength, the air would have been cold on their bare legs given their short skirts and scant fuku as the Queen of the Moon and her advisors touted the senshis' accomplishments and righted their reputations in front of the people of the Moon Kingdom.

It was a long speech.

Despite her stiff posture and regal air, Venus was somewhere deep within herself, her gaze unseeing, despite the enormity of the situation.

She could feel Mars' eyes on her. She knew that the Martian knew that something was wrong. Thus far, Minako had left Rei in the dark as to her intentions to distance herself, even _if_ she had continued to come to Rei's room at night.

But, in a sudden moment of clarity, she had promised herself one thing - last night had been the last time.

Even if he had been wrong, Artemis had also been right. He was wrong in that her obsession with Rei _hadn't_ faded after a handful of days. He was right in that her mission to her Princess and her mission to herself _had_ to take precedence over all else.

Even if Rei had made her doubt that.

In the Tent City of her peoples, Minako had been so ready to prove to the world that Rei was, in fact, her equal, her own. But how ironic, that just when she was beginning to question herself, it had been Rei who had restored her faith in her personal mission to be the model Venusian and leader of the senshi. But Rei was a fine contradiction there. For while she had helped Minako to reaffirm that her mission was still attainable, she had also questioned many of her motives, and this is what made Minako harden her resolve.

She'd tried once to distance herself by increasing physicality with the Martian – to make their relationship purely sexual. That had backfired terribly and had left Minako wanting Rei more. And in the wake of her understanding that her feelings for Rei were entirely too powerful, she had but one defense left.

She had to quit Rei completely. It was the only answer. But whether or not Minako was strong enough follow through… she wasn't sure.

Suddenly, Venus flinched. The public must have been pleased with their senshi. She was vaguely aware of clapping, shouts, cheers…

It sounded so far away.

* * *

"Who's great idea was this?" Jupiter scowled, even as the four of them were escorted into a small room at the ballroom's rear. She detransformed in a green-tinged glow, and stood resplendent in a hunter green gown. Cut above the knees at an angle, it also left her muscular arms bare and she flexed impatiently.

Venus, Mercury, and Mars each followed suit, each of them also dressed appropriately for the ball behind the veil of their magic.

Ami chuckled nervously, her tense fingers smoothing down the front of her modest, light blue dress. "The Queen and the Princess wanted us to have the chance to enjoy this night as we are, and not as their protectors."

Rei snorted derisively, but no further words were needed from the Martian to express her displeasure with the situation. Despite the femininity of her deep crimson gown - ankle length and boasting vertical slits that met each of her thighs, with a high neck that still managed to call attention to her ample chest - she looked nonetheless intimidating.

In her current state, Minako felt oddly inadequate to be commander, but as ready as she was going to be to lead her troops back to the ball, Minako wordlessly spun. In the rushed motion, the long skirt of her black-gold dress nearly caught the high heel of her strappy sandal, but before she could pitch forward to lose her balance, she felt a steadying pressure on her bare, upper arm.

She darted her gaze over her shoulder. Rei, supporting her commander in all her quiet intensity, glared at her, and Minako couldn't help but wonder just how easily the Martian's elegantly pulled back hair could come undone by the tips of her fingers.

'_Stop it.'_

"Mars." Minako nodded to her subordinate coolly and pulled away from Rei's touch, using the formal senshi name as a last ditch effort to further depersonalize the woman she couldn't keep her mind off of.

Rei frowned, for she saw right through it. She watched critically as Minako paused in front of a mirror by the door. Checking her hair, pinned back away from her face, the length of her locks curled loosely and tumbling between her shoulder blades, there was a slight tremor to Minako's dainty hand.

It hadn't been Rei's first sign that something was wrong, and it wouldn't be the last.

* * *

The impossibly high ceiling of the ballroom caught Makoto's attention, though she guessed it had less to do with the ornately carved details of the crown molding, and more to do with the gnawing feeling of loneliness that pulled her attention away from the thousands of people that were there to celebrate on the behalf of the senshi. She always felt most lonely while in a crowd.

Not that anyone knew who she was, or who Mars was for that matter. The ruling families of their planets had condemned themselves to death on their dying planets, and surely, the Jovians that resided on the Moon that were highly enough bred to receive an invitation to the ball wouldn't recognize the twelfth Princess of their planet, even if she hadn't foregone her life with the nomads for being raised in the palace. Besides, if any of the Jovians had left their Tent City to attend the ball at all, it was probably just for the food.

Nonetheless, in her loneliness, Makoto found herself missing her brothers and sisters; members of the many different tribes she'd traveled with, her entire way of life. She would have even enjoyed the Martian's quiet form of grudging companionship, if Rei hadn't been silently stalking Minako from a distance all night long. A quick glance to the throne confirmed that, although the Mercurian family was likely in attendance, Ami lingered closely and quietly at Serenity's right hand side.

And it was then that Makoto finally found a recognizable face, and her chocolate eyes brightened.

"Motoki-kun?" She called.

The spiky haired man straightened his tall frame and his dark eyes searched for the familiar voice. He nearly spilled his glass of punch when he finally saw her. Threading through the milling crowd, and effectively ditching his glass on a cocktail table, he hurried to her.

"Mako-chan? But what are _you_ doing here?"

The Jovian froze then, her mouth slack. Motoki thought she was a karaoke singing refugee from Jupiter, and Minako didn't want him to know that he harbored the Princess of the Moon Kingdom and her senshi at his karaoke bar for secret meetings…

"Makoto-san's family was third in line from the Jovian diplomats who refused their invitation to the ball."

Makoto breathed a sigh of relief as her commander swept in and saved her at the last moment. The Venusian had an uncanny ability to think on her feet and fabricate a believable tale at a moment's notice. It was nearly as well developed as her subtlety and tact, and Minako's sudden interruption and subsequent departure was skillfully tempered by a dashing smile and a few brief and polite words to Motoki before she elegantly excused herself and allowed the crowd to swallow her and pull her away.

Though perhaps the Martian that stalked by shortly afterwards wouldn't have been so easily explained, and might have been a bit of a give away to their true identities if it hadn't been for Makoto's quick distraction.

"I didn't know your family was Lunarian royalty, Motoki-kun. You must be used to these kinds of balls."

Motoki scratched at the back of his neck anxiously. "Actually, I'm not even… uh… well bred, let alone from royal stock." His voice lowered conspiratorially. "I think I was sent an invitation by mistake."

He chuckled nervously and Makoto found her eyes trailing to the dais where the Moon's royal family milled about. She shuddered when she realized that Serenity was looking right at her.

And so was Ami.

There was a jarring pause in the room's sound level. The band wrapped up their current piece, flipped the pages of their sheet music noisily, and then, once again wreaking havoc on the room's acoustics, began the next tune to the wailing call of first violin.

"Some mistake." Makoto grumbled to herself.

Shyly, Motoki extended his hand. "I'm glad I'm here anyway. Will you dance with me, Mako-chan? At least for tonight, we can pretend to be royalty, can't we?

Despite the absurdity of it all, the Jovian Princess found herself smiling at the awkward Lunarian shopkeeper.

Finally, she took his hand, and as Motoki spun her around the dance floor in time to the music, on several occasions, Makoto thought she felt the familiar gaze of blue tinged eyes following her, but when she looked back to the throne, although the Princess was still watching her intently, Ami was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

The ballroom was enormous and packed nearly wall to wall with citizens from all across the solar system. But still, Minako knew there would be no avoiding Rei completely. She'd felt those dark eyes on her all night, but not once did Rei advance, and over the course of the night, Minako chastised herself several times for _wanting_ the other woman to ask her to dance, especially when she had already decided to cut herself off from Rei.

It wasn't until hours later, when boredom had gotten the better of her, and she'd grown immune to Rei's distant glares and silent game of cat and mouse, that Minako decided to finally accept an invitation to the dance floor.

His name went in one ear and out the other; a well-bred Venusian Adonis that even her sisters or mother would have bragged about dancing with. But as soon as she had nodded her acceptance and extended her hand to allow his soft fingers to thread between her own, a calloused hand seized her wrist.

And she didn't need to turn her head over her shoulder to know that Rei had made her move, and nor did she dare – for she knew she wouldn't be able to mask the relief she felt. She trained her gaze instead on her suitor's growing look of discomfort, for the Martian didn't need words to convey her intent; her dark and dangerous expression was telling enough.

Seconds later, the blonde man wordlessly released Minako's hand, and with retreating steps that didn't dare turn his back to Rei, he disappeared amongst the crowd.

Minako found herself being roughly pulled through the crowd and was yanked into an only slightly less populated corner. The diversion had been all Minako had needed to collect herself, and once she managed to reestablish her least favorite, but most necessary mask, she turned on Rei, her lips a thin, white line.

"Do I have to remind you?" Minako hissed through bared teeth. "You have no claim on me, Mars."

Rei released her bruising hold on Minako's wrist, but the Venusian wasn't so quick to retract her hand.

Minako looked away quickly, however, her brow tightly creased. "If there's nothing else, you're dismissed."

"You wouldn't _dare_ abuse your station like that." Rei growled.

Minako looked up through her bangs. "Wouldn't I?"

Rei frowned darkly. An eternity passed. The first violin wailed. She snorted, and in a blur of crimson, she was gone.

Minako pressed her back against the granite wall. Watery eyes gazed up at the ceiling, and for a moment, she allowed the wail of the violin to explain the feelings she couldn't quite express.

* * *

The ball had lasted into the early hours of the morning. Without Rei's lingering influence, Minako had danced with every beautiful creature who had asked for her hand, and even some who hadn't.

It wasn't until the band had packed away their instruments, and the choicest suitors had finally given up hope of convincing Minako to return to their rooms, that the Venusian had finally left the festivities.

Her feet had carried her back to the senshi wing of the Palace, and despite the dozens of pairs of arms that had held her that night, she felt a sense of terrible, lingering cold in the unshakable knowledge that none of them had been Rei.

Minako breathed an unsteady sigh when she realized she hadn't placed her hand on her door, but on Rei's. For just a moment, she rested her head against the polished wood, her palm growing clammy around the handle, the slightest amount of pressure applied to it.

'_If I apologize to her, maybe she'll forgive me.'_

She didn't recognize it then, but although her decision went completely against her better judgment, against all the rules she'd previously set for herself, she had followed her heart like any good Venusian would.

She couldn't quit Rei after all.

Her hand balled into a fist then, and she pushed through the resistance in her mind, and the resistance of the handle, and she was immediately enveloped in the familiar darkness of Rei's antechamber.

She blinked at the dark-blindness that had consumed her, and as she allowed her vision to adjust, her heart pounded so loudly in her ears that for a moment, she thought it might burst.

"I can't believe you'd so easily come back to me."

The undisguised venom in Rei's voice physically shook Minako. In the dark, she could just barely make out Rei's profile sitting rigidly on the couch.

She'd been _waiting_. She _knew_ she'd come back to her.

Minako felt her hackles rise, and any thoughts she'd had of apologizing drained away as quickly as had the color in her cheeks. Once again, she regained control of her stony mask.

"Would you prefer I leave?" Minako asked coldly.

There was a strained silence from Rei that was equally telling as any response, and knowing that she held such power over her subordinate, when coupled with the recriminating knowledge that she had almost, once again, placed her feelings for Rei over her mission, Minako's misplaced anger was fueled that much more.

"That's what I thought." Minako said smugly.

There was a sudden creaking of couch springs, and Rei rapidly devoured the distance that separated them. Minako stood stiffly, though she couldn't help that her body responded when Rei's fingers bit into her hip and grabbed her wrist. She stepped forward into Rei's body unconsciously.

"If you stay, I won't be gentle." Rei's voice was a quiet hiss against Minako's ear.

Minako shivered. "What if I don't want you to be?"

Minako cried out softly as she was roughly pushed back against the wall. With deft fingers that had learned the intricacies of golden dress in the tight confines of a make-shift dressing room not long ago, Rei wasted no time in stripping the gown from her body.

And despite the pleasure and pain that would follow…

Minako hated herself.

* * *

Days passed and each one felt like years slowly ticking away to the tune of hours. The residents of the Moon Kingdom seemed to hold a collective breath, awaiting the start of delegations with Earth.

The inhabitants of the Palace walked on eggshells, and the senshi were treated as the diseased. Untouchable figures, saviors and protectors, though the ball had righted their reputations, the public still didn't know how to treat the touchy women, all so absorbed in their own inner workings to really ease the skewed perception of themselves.

It didn't help that any wrong move, any misspoken word, any perceived glance could spark the direst of arguments between the senshi of Mars and Venus. Indeed, the two women who once seemed so inseparable, had become ready enemies.

'_During the day.'_ Rei reminded herself as she jogged down the stairs at the Palace rear, her dark mane bouncing against her shoulder blades. _'She comes to me readily enough at night.'_

On the night of the ball, it had become clear that their shared nights – which were as fitful and angered as their daily interactions, albeit in a different way – was just another one of the Venusian's coping mechanisms. But even Rei would agree that this woman's strange parody of getting along with one another was preferable to nothing at all.

It was twisted logic.

It was _Venusian_ logic.

But the Martian went along with it, for although Minako could be intuitive and empathic with others, the woman was completely and utterly blind when it came to herself.

Rei's fingernails bit into her palms. _'Why do I care? She is not my Vikhe.'_

She felt the first drop of blood escape the crescent shaped wounds she'd inflicted and she grinned bitterly. She could delude herself all she wanted, tell herself that the nearly debilitating pangs of jealousy and possession she felt for the other woman were nothing.

'_Nothing.'_

Rei squinted then, and she finally homed in on the woman she'd searched out. Her muscles flexed in anticipation of a much needed fight. The Jovian was already at the training field, working herself into a sweat as she performed a slow and tedious kata with a long, wooden staff.

Outwardly, Makoto seemed the personification of calm, but Rei could read the powerful, short, barely controlled jabs for what they really were, and she could detect the barely repressed frustration that rolled off the other warrior's green tinged aura in visible waves.

Rei could easily see through Makoto's indifference. The Jovian needed a fight as much as she did, but still, Makoto put up quite the front, continuing her not so fluid practiced motions, even as Rei came to a halt a few paces away, her feet spread shoulder width apart, her weight cocked slightly on her left leg.

"Fight me." Rei demanded, raising her hands in a defense stance

Makoto didn't pause in her kata. "You can't give me orders. You may be her right hand woman, but you're not my commander."

The Martian spat bitterly, her saliva pooling on the dirt between the weeds at her feet. "Do you want this diversion or not?"

Makoto paused, her staff held tensely over her head in a white knuckled grip. She finally met Rei's gaze. "Girl problems?" She taunted.

Rei's response was to let her barely restrained powers flood her body. In a crimson glow, she stood before Makoto as Mars, and with another vicious release of saliva, she tore the crimson choker from her neck as she had with each transformation into her senshi persona.

Makoto snorted. Her staff clattered to the ground and she joined her comrade as Jupiter a heartbeat later.

Mars threw herself at Jupiter bodily and the two grappled, trading punches to the upper body mercilessly. Neither seemed willing to block their opponent's blows, and the injuries they sustained seemed only to fuel their need to fight.

"This is about Venus, isn't it?" Jupiter asked as she landed a punch to Mars' gut. "You were the one that was all gung ho about telling people you like them. What happened there? I hate hypocrites."

Mars traded blows, and skirting to the side of the taller woman, she scored a hit to Jupiter's kidney. "Then you should hate yourself as much as you hate me."

Jupiter stumbled backwards and summoned her halberd. She took a sweeping step forward and jabbed for Mars' midsection, but the crimson warrior blocked it readily, summoning her Mars Dagger without a second thought.

The halberd was deflected easily and Mars took a moment to scowl at the crimson and gold weapon in her palm. Those combined colors and the image of the woman that held its twin only served to remind her of her reason for fighting, and she violently threw the dagger aside, it's deadly blade spearing the dusty ground.

"I'm no hypocrite." Mars hissed. "She knows how I feel."

Jupiter snorted derisively. "Too bad she chooses not to see it."

Jupiter charged, the tip of her weapon aimed for Mars' chest. The crimson warrior ducked and scrambled, skittering backwards on her toes to gain some distance, for her instinct told her that the yet untested weapon that pulsed at the ready in her fingertips would be no good in close range combat.

Far enough away, Mars found herself holding a flame bow with her left hand, an arrow of fire cocked next to her ear with her right.

"She sees it. She ignores it." Mars growled. "Anyway, it doesn't matter, there's nothing between she and I."

"But that doesn't keep her from your bed." Jupiter froze, all too aware of her vulnerability with the Martian's cold gaze locked on her, the tip of a flaming arrow pointed right at her. "Come on Rei, the whole freaking Palace knows what's going on between you two."

Mars sneered. "At least I'm _getting_ some from the one I care about, and am not depending on a worthless rebound for happiness."

Her arrow loosed itself, and the flaming projectile buried itself in the ground at Jupiter's feet, close enough for the Jovian to wonder if the Martian had been seriously aiming or not.

"Maybe. "Jupiter smirked ferally. "But at least I'm no one's _bitch_."

In the span of time that Jupiter had formed and released a bolt of high-frequency electricity, Mars had darted in and around the taller woman's defenses. Jupiter's energy bolt hit the ground impotently, and with an uncontrolled scream of frustration, the crimson warrior decked the Jovian in the eye, knocking her opponent flat on her back.

Cracking dislocated knuckles that were already starting to heal themselves, Mars stormed back towards the Palace.

* * *

Makoto laid low for the next few hours. Despite her senshi ability to heal, her black eye, though it no longer hurt to the touch, was still very prevalent.

So she'd retreated to a spot she'd found herself attracted to since she'd first found it. A place where she thought no one, if there even _was_ anyone who cared enough to find her, would think to look for her.

Except perhaps…

"Makoto-san! What happened to your eye!?"

The Jovian looked up from the plant she'd been inspecting with a startled expression. "Ami-chan!" She exclaimed.

Ami hurried around the rose bush and sank to the grass on her knees in front of the taller woman. Without thinking, she cupped her fingers around Makoto's chin and titled her head to inspect the ugly bruise.

"Tell me how this happened." She demanded.

Makoto chuckled. "Rei."

"Rei-san did this to you?"

Makoto's smile widened handsomely. "It's okay. I asked for it."

Ami raised a delicate eyebrow in reproach, and Makoto brushed off the smaller woman's concern. She glanced at her chronometer distractedly. "Shouldn't you be with the Princess?"

Ami's gaze turned back towards the Palace. "Preparations for the diplomatic meetings have been finalized. Serenity doesn't… she doesn't need me right now."

Makoto winced, all too aware that she had just ripped wide open a wound that the Mercurian had been tenaciously holding shut. "Ami-chan…"

But Mercurians were known to be open with those closest, and despite the painful topic, Ami couldn't help but turn to the friend she held almost as closely as the Princess herself, oblivious to the pain it caused both her and Makoto. Her hands fidgeted in her lap.

"She's been holding conference with Endymion daily via telecom. I can… no longer lure her from her room, as she is either in conference with him, or is awaiting his call."

"I'm sure they have much to discuss about their peoples." Makoto said reassuringly. She reached out to lay a hand on Ami's knee.

The Mercurian turned away darkly. "You do not know what they talk about, Makoto-san."

"…ah." The Jovian shut her mouth and her teeth met loudly. _'A lover scorned.'_ She realized of Ami.

A strained silence stretched between the two women. A bird cried in the canopy of an ornamental tree overhead. Makoto grappled with herself as ferociously as she had with Mars.

"You should tell Serenity-chan." She said softly.

"Eh?"

Makoto smiled smally, cherishing the smaller woman's look of hopefulness, imprinting to her memory Ami's arched eyebrows and wide eyes, even the tenseness in her shoulders.

"You should tell Serenity that you love her."

Ami colored instantly, and she examined the green blades of grass that she knelt on with no small amount of wonder. When she regained her voice, her words were a pained whisper. "I fear she's already fallen for Endymion."

"So what?" Makoto spat, and she claimed another victory when Ami raised her gaze from the ground once again. "They haven't even met in person yet. Now is your chance!" She leaned forward conspiratorially, an eyebrow raised high beneath the fall of her slightly curled bangs. "Besides, you have one distinct advantage that Endymion couldn't dream of."

"Makoto-san?" Ami worried her bottom lip with her teeth.

The Jovian winked handsomely. "You have experience with Serenity where he has none."

Ami's lingering blush erupted into crimson fury. "Makoto-san!" She exclaimed. "We haven't even-"

Makoto held her hand up, palm flat, in a silencing gesture. "I _don't_ need to know."

"No." Ami barked, her hands balling into white knuckled fists. "I do _not_ know her quite the way you think I do… even if I wished I did."

"Ami-chan…" It was Makoto's turn to be hushed, but the moment of silence was not awkward. In fact, the Mercurian seemed to somehow be relieved for the rushed confession.

Makoto nodded then. Her hand, tentatively resting on Ami's knee, patted her reassuringly. "Then why not change that? Confess your feelings for her, Ami-chan. You have to follow your heart."

Ami seemed unduly captured by Makoto's large hand on her knee, as if she questioned exactly the path that her heart was leading her down. When she spoke next, her words were a quiet whisper.

"And what of you? Have you confessed your feelings to Motoki-kun yet?"

"Confess my feelings?" Makoto's hand retreated from its perch on Ami's knee, and she rubbed the back of her neck anxiously. "Oh, no. I mean, he's a good guy, but I don't like him _that_ way." She offered Ami an unreadable smile. "He's just a handy distraction."

"A distraction?" Ami asked uncertainly, "but what do you need to be distracted from, Makoto-san?"

"It doesn't matter." Makoto shrugged dramatically and avoided answering what, to her, was so terribly obvious. "Anyway, he's used to this kind of relationship." She winked at Ami and chuckled softly. "In fact, he tells me has several other girlfriends and boyfriends to keep him company when I'm not around."

Ami squeaked. "Boyfriends?!"

Makoto's laugh brought warmth to the garden. "You can't tell me you wouldn't have thought that about him, could you?"

"No." The smaller woman joined her friend in laughter. "I suppose not."

Makoto wiped a budding tear from the corner of her eye then, just as Ami shifted forward to ease her legs that had begun to tingle, and their mutual laughter seemed to die in the backs of their throats. With wide eyes, so close to one another, it would be such a small effort to…

For a brief moment, their lips touched. With closed mouths, it was simple and chaste, and neither fully ever knew who had made the first move.

Ami opened her eyes slowly. The color drained from her cheeks. "I… I'm sorry, Makoto-san-"

"No. _I'm_ sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It was nothing." Ami said hurriedly.

"Yeah, nothing."

There was a soft beep of their communicatorsthat nearly went unnoticed, and would have, were it not for a frantic voice that cried out over tinny radio waves.

"I need backup!"

Ami and Makoto both leapt to their feet. The Jovian raised her wrist close to her mouth, and she called into her own communicator, "We're on our way, Rei!"

With sharp nods at one another, Makoto and Ami took to their heels.

* * *

Mars frowned. Pillars of fire roared across the main courtyard of the Venusian Tent City. Most of the civilians had scrambled out of the way in time, but the shop in which Minako had bought her dress for the ball nearly a week ago had been reduced to smoldering embers.

Purely accidental.

She released a breath, and with it, a flame arrow flew from her bow. It impaled one of the ghouls – right through the neck, and lodged into the chest of the monster behind it.

"I see you've learned to use that thing a little better."

Mars sneered, though really, she was glad for the Jovian's presence. Already, Jupiter had thrown herself into the fray, leaping into the middle of the crowd of ten monsters that had previously only had the crimson warrior as their target.

Mercury was hard at work, extinguishing the worst of Mars' fires. "Status?" She called over her shoulder.

"There were only fifteen. I already killed two." Mars focused, and sniped another. "Three." She amended over the roar of their elemental attacks. "They are fewer in number this time, but they're stronger than they have been."

Mercury turned her icy projectiles to the fray, and she and Jupiter combined their attacks to take out two more. "Where is Venus?" She called over the commotion.

"I'm not her keeper!" Mars barked. She pushed her palm into the stomach of a monster that had gotten too close. The fire sliced it in two, and the separate halves burst into flame. "I'm not her _babysitter_!" She spat as she took the next creature in exactly the same fashion.

"Don't think I didn't hear that, Mars."

Mars looked up. The glint of the sun nearly blinded her for a moment, but when her vision cleared, she saw the golden warrior standing proudly on the rooftop. Venus pulled back her arm and then shot it forward, releasing a crescent shaped projectile that imbedded itself in the neck of the ghoul closest to Mars. It dropped to the ground in a boneless heap at the Martian's feet.

Mercury and Jupiter dispatched the last two monsters. Mercury's tainted blade of ice hung from her gloved hand limply. All attention was on their commander.

Her golden curls fighting the pull of gravity, Venus threw herself from her lofty perch. She absorbed the impact of the fall by sinking to her haunches. Gracefully, she rose to her full height, and with measured paces of her sandaled feet, she inserted herself between her three subordinates. Her gaze lingered on Jupiter, and she frowned sternly.

"What happened to your eye?"

"Nothing!" Both Mars and Jupiter responded in tandem with furious barks.

Venus refused to turn, and persisted to show Mars her back while eyeing Jupiter suspiciously. The leader of the senshi let the matter drop. She raised her communicator to thin, white lips, and ordered damage control to hurry to their location. Her arm dropped back to her side slowly. The crackling of the flames that Mercury hadn't been able to contain was the only sound between the four of them.

"I have a report to file." Venus' words were rushed and jarring. She turned, and without so much as a backward glance to any of her warriors, she disappeared through a plume of Mars' smoke.

* * *

Minako had been quiet enough coming through the heavy steel door that led to the rooftop garden, but Rei had sensed her aura before she could get too close.

Rei smirked. One thing that fighting with the Venusian granted her was the ability to once again _sense_ the other woman. She opened her eyes suddenly, and on the other side of the fire, Minako faltered in her approach.

"I thought you had a report to file." Rei said dryly.

It took Minako a second to collect herself. She frowned sourly and then pushed forward, skirting around the low flames until she stood several paces before the kneeling woman. "I lied." She said with a shrug. Her indifference dissipated. "Rei, I told you not to do this, it's too dangerous."

Rei shut her eyes again, as much as to return to her duty as to avoid those pleading, caramel eyes that only reminded her of times past. "I promised you nothing."

"I _order_ you to stop."

Rei's eyes shot open once more and she glared at her commander dangerously. "You'd abuse you power again? The way you did at the ball?" She nearly growled. "You _can't_ have it both ways, Minako."

The backhanded comment, loaded with so many meanings, hung in a pregnant pause. Minako's hands formed tight fists. Rei dismissed her by shutting her eyes, though she knew she'd never be able to center herself into meditation while the Venusian lingered.

Despite her nominal ability to sense the other woman again, Rei hadn't had the wherewithal to sense Minako's next move, and she was caught completely off guard when her commander's body slammed into hers and knocked her to the ground. With Minako straddling her waist and pinning her down, Rei could do nothing but look up into the conflicted expression of the only woman that had ever sent her into such a tailspin.

Slowly, Minako's hands came to rest on either side of Rei's head, and with a gentleness that had disappeared the night of the ball, she leant down and captured Rei's lips softly.

Rei was unconvinced. And this parody of what they once had only hurt that much more. She sneered when her commander pulled away and looked at her longingly.

"It's not even nighttime." Rei said in a dry whisper. "We should still be fighting with one another this time of day, according to your ever-changing rules. Are you beginning to doubt yourself?"

Hovering just above her reluctant lover, Minako frowned, torn in entirely too many directions. _'Surrender to her!'_ Her heart demanded.

Her mind wouldn't listen.

With a strangled cry, Minako pounded a fist into the ground, her knuckles brushing against the soft skin of Rei's cheek in their descent. The Martian didn't so much as flinch.

All too quickly, her commander released her. Rei's body instantly lamented the loss, and she sat up slowly, watching through narrowed eyes as Minako stormed back to the access door. The door slammed shut behind Minako's retreating form, and the Martian was left alone with her fire once again.

"See you tonight." Rei's words tasted bitter, even on her own tongue.

* * *

Preview, Chapter 11: Maiden Voyage

Makoto sighed resignedly. "You haven't told her yet, have you?"

"Eh?" Ami squeaked at the abrupt change of subject.

"Serenity. You haven't told her how you feel, have you?"

Ami turned her head away. "No. Not yet."

"You have to do it before Endymion can get any closer to her, Ami-chan."

"Yes."

Makoto slipped a finger under the other woman's delicate chin and turned her back to face her. "Soon?" She asked softly.

"Soon." Ami's voice was a breathless whisper. This time, she leaned in slowly, and boldly captured Makoto's lips.


	11. Chapter 11

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 11: Maiden Voyage  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

With the influx of refugees to the Moon, most of the Lunar spaceports had been reclaimed as valuable real estate and had been incorporated into the Tent Cities, quickly filled with tents and buildings for the displaced peoples of the Moon Kingdom. Of those few ports that remained open to see to the refugees that continued to flee their failing planets, there hadn't been one adequate to receive the Earthlings.

It had proved to be a touchy subject, trying to dance around the fact that not only was the Terran spacecraft far too big and bulky to land within the city limits, but the Earthlings were using untested space-fairing technologies and would make their first Lunar landing on what would be a maiden voyage. None of the Lunar diplomats had been eager to explain to the Terrans that the inertia from their craft's primitive thrusters alone might well have decimated the precariously held together dwellings of the Tent Cities, but they had managed to smooth things over and redirect the Earthlings to another landing site.

Of course, the dusty pit off the shores of the Sea of Serenity hardly seemed the proper place to welcome the royalty of their neighboring planet, but in this new day of improvisation, it would have to do.

Mars looked to the heavens in disdain. If the creaky jalopy of a boxy spacecraft, still on its tedious descent from the starry sky wasn't bad enough, she couldn't _believe_ the trashcan that the Earthlings had used to escape their planet's gravity. A large, cylindrical spaceship with two wide, fat wings orbited high above the crystalline facets of the geo dome, and from that giant hunk of metal, this other, smaller shuttle descended.

"It's a wonder they made it here in one piece." Mars muttered under her breath.

She pulled her gaze from the black sky when she felt a slight pressure on her left foot, and she found Venus' golden sandal poking her discreetly. The slightly smaller woman was silencing her, reprimanding her for the comment, even though Venus failed to repress an honest smirk and a quiet chuckle.

'_Gods, I miss her smile.' _Rei realized, and despite herself, she smiled softly.

It was a gesture that was fated to a slow death, and as the Terran spacecraft neared the surface, its barbaric rocket engines initiating reverse thrusters in order to slow their descent, a wild wind whipped across the basin of the dried ocean. Scraggly trees bent backwards in the frenzied winds, grains of sand blasted against the sides of the Lunar Rovers that waited behind them, yet the senshi stood tall and grim, exposed and unflinching.

The shuttle's pilot made several clumsy, manual adjustments as he neared the ground. For one tense moment, the craft's thin legs threatened to cave underneath its weight, but finally, with a creaking groan, the mass of metal righted itself. The deafening roar of the engines was cut in a sudden vacuum of air, and in its wake, the superheated metal of the hull clicked and tinged, the metallic sounds creating a sharp staccato in the sudden silence.

With a sucking gasp, a metal staircase pulled away from the shuttle and slammed into the dusty ground. Mercury flinched, but caught herself quickly and stood to her full height. Each of the senshi watched the cavernous black opening, the void that preceded the Earthlings.

Four men stood in the mouth of the doorway. With grim expressions, they locked eyes with the four women standing at ground level. After an uncertain pause, the one in front finally nodded. Together, they descended the stairs in a tight, single file line.

The shitennou – they were to their Prince what the senshi were to their Princess – warriors infused with magical powers. Similarities, however, ended there. Kunzite; a tall and stern man with a high brow and long, straight hair lashed into a tidy tail, looked to be in his early thirties and was quite clearly their leader. Zoicite; demure and regal with a long, luxurious silver mane loosely pulled back from his face, wore a persistent frown paired with ever watchful eyes and seemed slightly older than Rei and Minako, perhaps in his mid twenties. Nephrite; of bulky build with chiseled features and a furrowed brow looked slightly younger while Jadeite; the picture of youth and innocence with blonde, curly hair, a wispy frame and a baby face, seemed no older than Ami, just barely having come of age.

There was a brief, uncomfortable exchange of pleasantries between the two sets of warriors. The women reached their hands outwards in greeting (save Mars), while the men bowed slightly at the waist (save Kunzite). There was an awkward moment where they realized that though they might have learned each other's names and titles via telecom conferences, they had failed to discuss the proper etiquette for greeting one another given their differing cultures.

Venus smoothed it over flawlessly and bowed slightly to Kunzite. "Welcome to the Moon Kingdom. It is our pleasure to host you here for diplomatic relations."

Kunzite stood stiffly for a moment as if assessing any potential threats. Then, with a careless smirk, he returned the gesture. With no further exchange, he turned back to his shuttle and nodded firmly.

On cue, a tall, dark haired man stepped from the void, his gleaming shoulder armor nearly stretching the span of the opening. His silver and sea green cape caught the blue tinged light of his planet that hung low in the sky as he descended the metal steps perhaps a bit quicker than decorum should have allowed. His dark eyes were innocent and searching, and though he bowed respectfully to each of the senshi, it was obvious that he was looking for someone else entirely.

Returning the favor, Venus glanced over her shoulder. She winked, and a white clad valet that stood at the side door of the closest rover snapped to attention and opened the rover door.

Serenity shot out of her luxurious cage like a bird taken to wing. The silver piping in her white gown reflected the sun's golden rays as her dark, unbound hair bounced between her shoulder blades, her steps unmeasured and hurried.

The senshi subtly converged around their Princess and the shitennou flanked their Prince. There was barely any space left for breathing where Serenity and Endymion met in the middle of their warriors.

With fumbling hands, Endymion clasped his fingers around Serenity's. "Princess Serenity, you are even more beautiful in person than I had dared imagine."

Mercury edged closer to her Princess, a stony expression capturing her delicate features. After rolling his eyes, Kunzite looked back to his shuttle before whistling a low, loud call to action that opened an entirely different floodgate.

This signaled the go-ahead for the rest of the humans to exit the shuttle, and with great clamoring and excitement, several dozen people streamed onto the Lunar surface. These people held secondary roles; aides and ambassadors, and as soon as they hit the ground, they were struck with awe.

Venus waved her hand, and auxiliary rovers and transport vehicles that had been sitting idle moved on her cue, approaching the Terran traveling party where they would be ushered back to the Moon Palace. As the rovers drove by, the large, fat tires kicked up a thin haze of dust that rose high over the depression of the sea basin.

It was a rough, unorganized start that even Venus' subtlety and tact had a hard time managing. She had to nearly pry Endymion and Serenity apart and direct them to separate rovers, for she wasn't ready to hand her Princess over to the Earthling Prince just yet, no matter _how_ charming he seemed.

Mars lingered, watching silently as the last of the Terran diplomatic party was finally herded into their transports, their eyes gawking and mouths gaping at the profile of the Moon Palace outlined on the not so distant horizon, its gleaming, white spires visible even through the veil of dust that hung in the air.

Mars' dark eyes narrowed then and she squinted, her gaze drawn to a tall woman with startlingly red hair who didn't seem to be as captivated as her peers. She could only wonder why the woman stared with such a steely gaze in her direction before she, too, was ushered onto a rover.

Mars' attention was quickly diverted though, and she straightened stiffly. She was more than a little surprised to find that her commander was willing to spare a moment's distraction with her, and when Venus quietly came to stand along side her, it was a conscious effort on the Martian's part to keep her hands at her sides.

"Look at them," Mars spat, "standing in awe of a civilization in ruins." She knew, at first glance, that whatever was to happen with these disgusting people…

There was a gentle touch on her shoulder. Venus' gloved hand perched there gently. "Mars, do you sense anything?"

…these _humans_ would amount to no good.

The crimson warrior met her commander's hesitant gaze. "It doesn't matter what I sense..."

And it was true, because the problem was that the alternative of doing nothing and condemning themselves to this dying satellite was even worse than reaching out to the Earthlings.

"The future has been set in motion." Mars finished darkly.

Venus' hand withered from Mars' shoulder, but she did not step away. Through the hazy veil of dust, despite the way they'd been treating each other, in that moment, their reluctant closeness was a strength they each could draw from.

* * *

High in one of the spires of the Moon Palace, the accommodations were much more comfortable, even if the atmosphere was far from it. Across opposites sides of a large, round table made of a solid sheet of brown-flecked white granite, the shitennou and the senshi afforded one another steely glances, if any at all.

Entirely too enamored with Serenity, who sat directly across from him, Endymion seemed oblivious.

"My father, King Helios, wishes to extend his apologies that he could not attend this historical meeting." His dark eyes grew slightly downcast, and he seemed to make a conscious effort not to pick at the threads of his cuff. "Unfortunately, he is of poor health and could not make the journey." He brightened slightly. "However, I have acted in his stead for the past two years, and am excited for the opportunity to stand in his place here today as well."

"I understand, Endymion." Serenity smiled broadly. Two seats down, Jupiter visibly recoiled from the intense gesture she'd never before seen from her Princess. "It's because of this that my mother, Queen Serenity, has placed me opposite you to lead delegations between our Kingdoms, _and_ to make you feel at ease here."

Jadeite's face grew warm. Maybe he was the only one to see it from his perspective, but he had to turn his head away from the suggestive expression Serenity cast at his Prince, the expression that made Endymion shift subtly in his seat.

Kunzite issued a derivative snort. Crossing his arms over the thin, ceremonial armor on his chest, he frowned sourly. "We are pleased for the invitation to visit your Kingdom, but we wish to address matters of concern immediately."

"And what matters might those be?" Venus' tongue proved to be as sharp as Kunzite's.

"We understand your… dire situation, between the refugees you harbor that sap your resources and the failing state of this satellite. We wish to be assured that the Moon Kingdom does not intend to _invade_ our planet."

Venus straightened; her hands clasped together and her words carefully rehearsed. "I can assure you that this is not the case." Her brow furrowed as though she were reluctant to divulge the information she was offering. "Even if it were in our nature to do so, we haven't even an army left that is capable of taking _anything_ by force."

Venus pulled her hands from the tabletop and rested them in her lap, where her audience wouldn't see her gloved hands ball into tight fists. "We have no offense, and no defense. We are completely at the mercy of those who might help our fractured Kingdom. We seek only peace, whether you offer us refuge on your resourceful planet, or supplies you can lend to us here, and only until other accommodations can be found or made for us, an effort to which our Queen has been consumed with."

Mars could see her commander's fluctuating golden aura, and she knew that Venus' words were not her own, and indeed, went against the Venusian's very nature. But though Mars could see right through her, Venus' mask was as strong as her acting, and the Earthlings, even the suspicious Kunzite, seemed to be put at ease.

Endymion leaned forward and cleared his throat tentatively. "Please excuse our concerns, Princess. You must understand that we're still trying to adjust to the sudden knowledge that there even _is_ life on other planets, let alone yours which is so technologically advanced. My people are very interested in a cultural exchange, and are up to the challenge of helping your Kingdom in their time of need." He smiled handsomely. "I am sure we can come to some kind of partnership in which there are mutual benefits for both our peoples."

There was a long moment then, where Endymion and Serenity shared nothing but an unreadable gaze, and during that time, their guardians found themselves hard pressed to sink into the woodwork. Eventually, Venus cleared her throat tactfully.

"I'm sure that all of you have had a long day, and you're likely eager to check on the rest of your traveling party. I might suggest that we break, and reconvene in the morning to begin our cultural exchange."

"A cultural exchange?" Endymion asked brightly.

Venus smiled blankly. "You mentioned our technological advancements, so perhaps we should start with the Mercurian…" The Venusian caught the slip before she could allude to the nature of the refugee dwellings, "city."

There was a murmur of agreement. Shuffling of chairs, rushed words uttered in different languages, and a general sense of avoidance between everyone except for Serenity and Endymion ensued, and it was more than a laborious task to separate the Princess from the Prince.

* * *

"You must really like this place."

Startled, Makoto snapped her book shut and looked up in alarm. "Ami-chan?"

The smaller woman skirted around a rose bush and took a seat in the grass near Makoto. She examined her hands in her lap idly. "I hope you don't mind the intrusion. I-"

"I couldn't sleep either." Makoto took the burden of explanation away from Ami, and the Mercurian was visibly relieved. Makoto affected a mischievous smile. "The humans _smell_ too bad for me to sleep."

"Makoto-san!" Ami stifled a chuckle behind her hand. "They're not _that_ bad, and they're nowhere near our quarters, anyway."

This only made Makoto laugh harder, and her heavy book slipped from her fingers. Ami picked it up and gave its title some thought. "Rosa mutiflora?" She looked back to her friend. "I thought you didn't have to study horticulture, that your knowledge was senshi-granted."

Makoto's melodious laugh caught in her throat. "I, uh…"

Ami opened the tome and thumbed through it until she found Makoto's bookmark crammed haphazardly between the pages. She furrowed her brow thoughtfully. "Hybrid cultivars most resistant to pests and diseases?" She looked up, and found that Makoto's blush easily matched the intensity of her own.

Makoto scratched the back of her neck with clammy fingers. "I knew you were interested in a more pest and disease resistant variety. I found that there aren't any varieties or cultivars that quite match your specifications, but…"

"Makoto-san…"

The Jovian swallowed audibly and snatched the book from Ami's grasp. "I think though, that _maybe_ a cross between…" she licked her thumb and flipped several pages back, indicating a picture of two roses, both circled in bold, red ink, "'Rosa Applejack', for it's resistance to disease, and 'Rosa Faberge' for its pest resistance and form, might produce the rose you're looking for."

"Really?" Ami scooted closer to Makoto. Tucking an errant strand of hair back behind an ear, she leaned against the Jovian to get a better look at the page. "That would be incredible! What kind of bloom might it produce?"

"A really pretty one."

"…Makoto-san?"

"Ah!" Makoto blushed, embarrassed by her derailment. Why was she so shy and awkward around this one woman? This just wasn't _like_ her. With a pinched brow and a sudden determination, she tossed her reservations to the wind and leaned forward to kiss Ami.

When she pulled away from the chaste kiss, she noted that Ami was slow to open her eyes.

"I'm sorry." Makoto said briskly, avoiding eye contact. "It was a mistake the last time…"

"It wasn't a mistake."

"Ami-chan?"

"It… it's okay." Ami chanced eye contact then, but this small action only reconfirmed to Makoto that there was a deep turmoil there.

Makoto sighed resignedly. "You haven't told her yet, have you?"

"Eh?" Ami squeaked at the abrupt change of subject.

"Serenity. You haven't told her how you feel, have you?"

Ami turned her head away. "No. Not yet."

"You have to do it before Endymion can get any closer to her, Ami-chan."

"Yes."

Makoto slipped a finger under the other woman's delicate chin and turned her back to face her. "Soon?" She asked softly.

"Soon." Ami's voice was a breathless whisper. This time, she leaned in slowly, and boldly captured Makoto's lips.

Unlike the others before it, this kiss wasn't quite so chaste, and when they parted, both were breathless.

There was a distinct sound of footfalls on the gravel path beyond the rose bushes, and Ami and Makoto pulled away from each other hurriedly, facing in opposite directions. Serenity ran past them, unseeing, without so much as a glance in their direction, her dark hair and white dress streaming behind her determined steps.

"Where is she going, I wonder? And alone, to boot." Makoto glanced at her chronometer. "She should be asleep at this hour." She was met with silence and she looked up quickly. "Ami-chan?"

But her small friend was already giving chase, closing in on Serenity's heels in the distance.

Makoto sighed. Her fingers tightened around the book that rested in her lap, and it was nearly torn in two.

* * *

Ami trailed two steps behind her Princess, but the dark haired woman didn't so much as acknowledge her presence.

"Serenity-chan," she finally called, "where are you going?"

The Princess spared a glance over her shoulder. She smiled mischievously. "Oh, just to spy on Endymion."

"Spy on…" Ami increased her pace, matching Serenity's. "Princess, you know you shouldn't leave your wing of the Palace without protection."

Serenity's smile broadened. "But I _do_ have protection. I have _you_."

Ami slowed. Her lower lip caught between her teeth, she watched her Princess continue to advance toward the guest wing. The Mercurian's shoulders tensed. Her brows knitted. She chased after Serenity once again and followed her into the guest wing, into human territory. Certainly, Ami was allowed access to most parts of the Palace, but with the stealthy mission Serenity had assigned herself, somehow, she felt like an intruder.

She quickly found her Princess; Serenity's form pressed tightly against a pillar, her hands balled and resting on its cool, round face as she peered into a large antechamber where several humans milled about. Silently, Ami adopted a similar stance, concealing herself behind a pillar in a row behind Serenity, where she could keep watch on both her Princess and the humans.

And she waited, though for what, exactly, she wasn't entirely certain.

Scanning for potential threats, she disregarded a group of three women holding half full wineglasses and sitting on plush couches that circled a roaring fire in the hearth. She disregarded two men who picked at the food offerings left on a broad buffet table. But then, her eyes found a familiar figure. He seemed smaller, slimmer, without his gleaming armor and flowing cape, but she recognized Endymion easily enough.

She wondered, however, who the brazen woman with the bright red hair was, the tall woman that pulled at the Prince's sleeve and seemed over-eager for his attention. Ami took a small step around the pillar and cocked her head. She could barely make out their muffled conversation.

The woman's lips were turned into a vicious frown. "It's because we're - - isn't it? - - know that such a thing isn't – to royalty anymore."

Endymion ran his fingers through his bangs. "The reason why doesn't - - Queen Serenity seemed very insistent that I indulge - - "

"Endymion, _please_, can't you-"

Ami glanced at her Princess to gauge her reaction. Serenity was watching the two with rapt attention. One hand was balled into a white knuckled first while the other twirled a lock of her hair in an anxious manner that Ami had never before witnessed.

"She's just a _child_." The red haired woman spat. "Forget Serenity, and come to my room tonight."

Serenity's fist slammed against the pillar. Ami saw it, though the frustrated gesture didn't make much noise. Serenity's frame, small as it was, shook with a trembling fury and… was she glowing? A trick of the light, perhaps?

Ami rushed forward then, intent on restraining Serenity before she could cause a scene, but a series of urgent beeps stopped her. She slapped a hand over her communicator to muffle the noise. Twirling back behind the pillar to avoid being seen, she switched the device to text only.

_[monster attack - in martian tent city – need backup]_

With wild eyes, Ami glanced at Serenity. She looked to the door. She looked back to her Princess. For a long moment, she was rooted to the spot, torn by two different and competing priorities. Here, in the palace, Serenity was safe. Guards were posted everywhere, not the least of which were two burly men that stood at the opening of the guest wing, their eyes already trained on their Princess.

With a strangled, helpless whimper, Ami bolted for the exit.

And she didn't look back.

* * *

Mercury ran towards the monster at full speed, her ragged panting and gasping breaths causing her shabon spray to nearly miss, but the rushing torrent managed to hit home and drag the two monsters that threatened Jupiter to the ground. The Jovian delivered a vicious kick to another that had gotten within striking distance. Her hands followed the creature to the ground where she electrocuted it in a blue-white charge of energy born from her gloved hands.

Back to back, Mars and Venus battled two of the dark-cloaked ghouls. Venus' chain strangled the monster before her, and with a mighty tug, its head was messily sheared off its body. She turned her head over her shoulder and barked, "We're in close combat! Where's your dagger, Mars?"

The crimson warrior pressed burning palms into the stomach of the monster closest to her and it went up in flames and withered to the ground. She chanced a glance over her shoulder and frowned darkly. "Where's _yours_?"

The two women held steely glares for a short moment before Mars cocked her weight on her hip and drew her fire bow. A flaming arrow whistled through the smoke-tinged air and impaled the last standing monster through the eye.

The four women stood panting in exhaustion. Already, the sounds of sirens could be heard not far away, signaling that Artemis had already arranged for damage control to clean up their mess. Some citizens, emblazoned and encouraged, and wishing to take matters into their own hands, were tending to an errant fire that had already claimed several shops and one building. Some were collecting the bodies of the dead while others were taking pot shots at the corpses of the creatures that lay in the street.

Venus wiped her brow, her white glove pulling away with a red stain. Her uncertain fingers gingerly touched her forehead and traced the outline of a shallow wound above the bridge of her nose.

Mercury approached helpfully, but the leader of the senshi brushed her off her concern, snapping her hand back to her side quickly. "It's nothing. It'll heal by morning."

Venus turned away, but was met with Mars' stony, sooty expression. She held still for the crimson warrior's silent inspection of the wound, and didn't pull away from the feather-light touch that insisted on reaching such a conclusion on its own. After some time, Mars nodded and grunted. She spared Venus no words of concern, and simply turned away from her leader.

"They were markedly stronger this time." Venus noted grimly. Trying to keep her wandering gaze from betraying her, she focused her attention on Mercury and Jupiter, and would not turn to look at Mars.

Mercury looked up from where she knelt on the ground, inspecting an ugly gash that ran the length of Jupiter's thigh. "They were stronger by a factor of twenty five percent." She said matter of factly before she tore off the end of the blue ribbon that circled her waist and tied it tightly around Jupiter's leg, even though the wound had already stopped bleeding and had started to close on its own.

"Something's fueling them." Rei said gruffly.

"Rei?" Venus asked.

The crimson warrior knew that the others were looking at _her_, but Mars' incredulous gaze snapped back to her commander who had called her name instead of her title.

Venus stammered awkwardly. _"Mars."_ She corrected herself sharply.

The crimson warrior could only shrug indifferently, her gaze drifting back in the direction of the Palace. "I don't know how, or why, or what. But something _must_ be fueling the monsters."

"And they're growing more unpredictable." Jupiter noted, her fingers absently ghosting over the blue fabric around her thigh. "This is the first time they've attacked at night. Do they sleep? Who's commanding them?"

Venus' hands balled into fists. "We got lucky this time, and we were all around to eliminate the threat quickly. But we can't chance letting the Earthlings discover the danger that lurks here."

"Venus?" Mercury asked.

"I'm ordering a rotating shift – guard duty around the Palace grounds, so that at least one of us is at the ready at all times, and we will up the security detail around the Palace as well. We have no reason to suspect that these creatures can get into the Palace proper, but we can't be sure that it couldn't happen. For now, our priority is to address any threats immediately."

Venus snorted then. There was a slight trace of mischief in her caramel eyes. "We can't let the Earthlings think the monsters come with the package, ne?"

* * *

The Princess was barely aware of a distant voice that sounded vaguely familiar.

"Serenity?"

There was a slight pressure around her upper arms, and she heard that clarion call again.

"Serenity?"

Her gaze seemed to clear, the fog had been lifted, and the Princess of the Moon shuddered in Endymion's hold.

"Endymion?"

The man, so much taller than her, so large and comforting, smiled worriedly. "Serenity," he said softly, "are you alright?"

"I guess I kind of zoned out." Serenity smiled widely, and pulled back slightly. She caught Endymion's hands with her own before he could pull them away completely. "I came to see you, Endymion."

"To see me?" Endymion smiled handsomely. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"To _me_." Serenity said softly. She leaned up, standing at the farthest reaches her tippie-toes would allow, and laid a feather-light kiss on Endymion's cheek. "Escort me back to my room?"

Endymion straightened. Stepping closer to Serenity, he offered her his elbow. "Certainly, Princess."

"_Serenity."_ The Princess corrected him with a scolding hiss. "Never anything more than that, though I am open to something… _less_."

The slightest hint of a blush dusted Endymion's high cheekbones, and with a sharp nod, he led Serenity back to her quarters.

* * *

Author's Notes:

I'd like to thank everyone who has left me such amazing reviews and personal messages. I'm sorry if I've not gotten a chance to respond to you directly, but please know that I've appreciated each one! Real Life has been a cruel mistress lately, but I will do my best to continue updating.

* * *

Preview, Chapter 12: Too Blind to See

"Hn." Mars said. "That's not good." She and Venus had hopped to the next rooftop to keep their eyes on Serenity and Endymion.

"What," Venus asked, "a girl can't buy her man a shiny trinket?"

Mars scowled then, not knowing if her ire had been caused by her commander's haphazardly phrased comment that simply didn't sit well with her, or the Venusian's misunderstanding of the meaning of said 'trinket'.

"She gave him a Mati. I believe it's the Mercurian equivalent of an engagement ring."

"…oh." Venus frowned, her intent gaze following the two apparent lovebirds as they flitted to the next stall. "Do you think Serenity-"

"I suspect the only one who knows the true nature of the jewel is Ami-chan and the vendor who sold it."

"Well," Venus shrugged awkwardly, "what they don't know won't hurt them?"

Mars snorted. "It's going to hurt someone."

O

"Ami-chan, what's wrong?" Jupiter asked.

"Eh?"

"I know it's uncomfortable to see them together, but it's just a necklace."

"But it's not just a-"

"Hey," Jupiter gently elbowed her smaller friend. "Serenity's moving on. We have to keep up."


	12. Chapter 12

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 12: Too Blind to See  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

"Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"That Prince Endymion was spotted leaving Princess Serenity's chambers at a _very_ late hour last night!"

"No!"

"It's true!"

"I understand that Queen Serenity is quite pushing for a… paring between the two."

"No!"

"It's true!"

When she felt the familiar weight of a hand perched on her shoulder, Mercury pulled herself from her hiding spot at the hallway's corner and spun away from the three royals she'd been eavesdropping on.

"Makoto-san!" Her voice was hoarse as though it were stuck at the back of her throat.

Jupiter offered a brash smile. "Don't listen to the gossip mongers, Ami-chan. You know you can't believe what they say. Besides," the Jovian winked boldly, "didn't you tell me that you hadn't gone _that_ far with Serenity?"

"Wh… what of it?" Mercury stammered. She tried for petulant disinterest but fell somewhere between anxious and embarrassed.

Jupiter chuckled. "Well, that only _proves_ that the royal rumor mill isn't infallible."

Mercury stifled a squeak and instantly colored. Left with no recourse to Jupiter's generous, hearty laugh, and not really wanting to know what the rumor mill had said about _her _relationship with Serenity, she could only shake herself into action.

Keeping pace with her companion's broad strides, she was led towards the guest wing of the Palace where they would rendezvous with the Earthlings. Somehow, as she caught sight of the group that she and Jupiter were meant to lead on an outing into the Mercurian Tent City, she felt as though it would be a difficult day.

And somehow, as difficult as the sight was to bear, she knew it had more to do than just seeing Serenity so closely wrapped around Endymion's arm.

* * *

"The people are on their best behavior." Venus said with a slight nod of acknowledgement to the tent city below.

"I know you're not referring to the _human_ people." Mars growled.

From their vantage point high on a dusty, limestone roof that overlooked the main Mercurian thoroughfare, Mars and Venus kept a watchful eye on both the humans and their Princess. To tout this trip as a cultural exchange, it seemed only logical to include the entire Terran traveling party, and as a result, several dozen rowdy, overwhelmed humans frequently overstepped what would be considered a proper boundary of personal space for their otherworldly hosts, yet the Mercurians handled the breeches in protocol gracefully.

"Everyone wants to impress the Earthlings, to convince them that we're a peaceful people in need of help."

"'Ch." Mars spat. "Good thing they decided not to bring the humans to the _Martian_ tent city, then."

Venus smirked at her moody subordinate and refocused her attention on the sprawl below them, shifting from side to side slightly when roofs and tents pulled Serenity from clear view. Mercury and Jupiter were doing a good job of keeping Serenity and Endymion – the two being nearly attached at the hip – in plain sight, but it seemed that something had caught the attention of the two royals, and their intertwined forms disappeared underneath the fabric edge of a vendor's stall, the weary forms of the shittenou trailing along behind them doggedly.

* * *

Mercury froze when she noticed that a particular item had captured Endymion's interest.

With an appreciative whistle, Endymion fingered a bold, circular pendant that emitted a faint, saffron hue. "I thought Mercurians were known for their technological devices. I didn't know they could create such beautiful jewelry, too."

Serenity turned. Peering around Endymion's arm, she smiled at her closest friend. "Ne, Ami-chan, what can you tell us about this pendant?"

Avoiding the curious glare of the shop's vendor, and unable to look at Serenity, Mercury stood to the other side of Endymion awkwardly. "Mercurians excel at technologies, but we also make other noteworthy products as well. Jewelry making, though not up to the standards of Venusian ornamental value, is also a Mercurian specialty."

There was a stretched silence. Mercury looked at the pendant before her with a carefully blank expression. "This jewel you so like, Endymion, is called a _Mati_. It is a mercury-amalgamated gold that gives it its distinct saffron color. It represents intellect, communication, and is only meant to be exchanged when two people-"

"Do you like it, Endymion?" Serenity cut in excitedly.

Mercury recoiled and took a step back, pulling her gaze from the pendant.

"Well, it _is_ very unique." The Prince said uncertainly.

Serenity reached into a small purse that hung at her side. She grabbed a handful of paper bills, sparing no concern on the amount, and slid the stack of money across the counter to the vendor. "I'll take it." She said with a smile.

Taking his cue from the senshi that represented his people, the vendor kept his silence and took the money gratefully, though he needn't concern himself with wrapping the piece of jewelry, for his Princess was already fishing it off the display and working the clasp with deft fingers.

With a slight blush on his cheeks, Endymion bowed his head and allowed Serenity to secure the clasp around his neck. With the circular pendant jutting over top of his tall, white collar, he drew himself up to his full height and stood for Serenity's inspection.

After a moment's consideration, Serenity shook her head. Standing on her toes, she tucked the pendant underneath his stiff collar. "There," she said with a sense of finality. "This way, it's closer to your heart."

* * *

"Hn." Mars said. "That's not good." She and Venus had hopped to the next rooftop to keep their eyes on Serenity and Endymion.

"What," Venus asked, "a girl can't buy her man a trinket?"

Mars scowled, not knowing if her ire had been caused by her commander's haphazardly phrased comment that simply didn't sit well with her, or the Venusian's misunderstanding of the meaning of said 'trinket'.

"She gave him a Mati. I believe it's the Mercurian equivalent to an engagement ring."

"…oh." Venus frowned, her intent gaze following the two apparent lovebirds as they flitted to the next stall. "Do you think Serenity-"

"I suspect the only one who knows the true nature of the jewel is Ami-chan and the vendor who sold it."

"Well," Venus shrugged awkwardly, "what they don't know won't hurt them?"

Mars snorted. "It's going to hurt _someone_."

* * *

"Ami-chan, what's wrong?" Jupiter asked.

"Eh?"

"I know it's uncomfortable to see them together, but it's just a necklace."

"But it's not just a-"

"Hey," Jupiter gently elbowed her smaller friend. "Serenity's moving on. We have to keep up."

"Ah." Mercury nodded, and silently fell into step behind the Jovian, shouldering her way through the thick crowd and never once lifting her gaze from the ground.

* * *

"Maybe this'll make Ami-chan finally open her eyes and see what's in front of her." Venus said quietly.

Mars tracked the movements of her two comrades on the ground below. "Makoto?" She asked.

Venus nodded. She took a step closer to the Martian and slipped her gloved hand into Mars'. For a moment, she thought the crimson warrior might pull away – and she wouldn't have blamed the other woman's reaction to such mixed signals that even _she_ didn't understand.

But Mars reigned in her reflexive nature, and wordlessly laced her fingers between her commander's.

* * *

Endymion exited the vendor's stall and pulled up short to keep himself from running into a figure that was trying to enter. Once his eyes had adjusted to the brightness of the sun, he realized that the set-up had been completely intentional.

A red haired woman smiled smugly at him. "Prince Endymion," she said, her voice a low rumble, "wouldn't you like to see some of these Mercurian technologies with me? I've already thought of several applications that may be beneficial for _our_ peoples-"

The woman nearly snarled when Princess Serenity exited the tent behind Endymion. The sun-blindness of the sudden transition didn't seem to faze the smaller woman, and neither did she shrink away from the tall human woman, and she proceeded to lace her arm around Endymion's elbow boldly.

"Not now," Endymion said to the red haired woman, "though I would appreciate a report on this matter that might brief me later – as is routine."

Despite his rejection, Endymion's expression and tone was kind and gentle.

Serenity's, however, was not. She effectively steered Endymion away and called back over her shoulder, "Good day, Lady."

* * *

"Who is that?" Mars narrowed her dark eyes. "It's not the first time I've noticed that woman sulking around."

"Sulking around?" Venus nearly chuckled. "That sounds familiar…"

"Venus…" Mars growled in warning.

Her eyes once again trained on the red haired human below who had already returned to haunting Endymion's steps, though this time from a more discreet distance near the safety of the shitennou, Venus adopted a distant expression. "I don't know who she is, but she loves him deeply. And he's too blind to notice."

"Too blind?" Mars nearly spat. "He must be a lot like-" Mars' accusation died in her throat when her commander abruptly stepped away and pulled her hand free. Venus refused to admit the similarity Mars suggested.

Venus glanced down at the humans milling about, one shapely leg perched on the slight rise of the rooftop wall. "We have the potential for some ugly love triangles here." She said distractedly.

"Too damned many of them." Mars grumbled, her gaze still fixed on Venus.

* * *

It had been a long day spent touring only one small section of the interstellar refugee camps, and with much procession and herding, the humans were finally led back to the Moon Palace. Running on adrenaline and eager to show one another their newly acquired trinkets of the Moon Kingdom, the Terran traveling party formed a loose crowd half in and half out of the guest wing.

The senshi and the shitennou were finally making some progress in separating Endymion and Serenity, stressing that the following day would see early diplomatic talks, and that they both should get some rest. It was Zoicite's anxious, darting eyes that finally caught Endymion's attention, and the Prince turned sharply to the lingering figure that had haunted him all day.

"Beryl," he said firmly, "please assure that the rest of the traveling party returns to their quarters."

The tall woman stepped forward hesitantly: "But Endymion…"

Endymion's gaze hardened in the slightest. "That's an order, Beryl. Please fulfill it."

Beryl straightened and mastered her wavering expression. Her fists clenched, her lips pursed into a thin, white line, and finally, she spun and took off to fulfill her orders.

Serenity twirled her hair absently and clutched Endymion's arm with her other hand. "Who is she, Endymion?"

"Her name is Kuroki Beryl." He said with resignation. "She was appointed to me as an aide to the throne by my father."

Kunzite snorted derisively and offered a wan smirk. "As a _favor _to his uncle, no less."

The Terran Prince scolded the leader of his guard with a reproachful glace before turning back to Serenity. "She is… my cousin. We grew up together, and because of that, she sometimes forgets her place. I apologize for her rudeness, Serenity. She means well, but,"

"She's an occultist." Kunzite spat.

"Occultist?" Serenity asked, her fingers pausing their anxious twirling of her dark locks.

Endymion gave Kunzite another warning and used the pause to think of an appropriate way to explain. "Beryl cleaves to old ways and traditions that most of us have regarded as paganistic or paranormal."

Jadeite stepped forward, a taunting smile on his baby face. "Can you imagine that she believes that humans may be descendants of the Lunarians? How preposterous!"

The senshi squirmed. Eye contact dropped to the floor. With Jadeite's light laugh filling the air, Kunzite narrowed his eyes at the female warriors.

Venus smiled a plastic smile. "That is a rather… far fetched idea." She said, and shifted her weight on her feet as she felt Zoicite's gaze inspect her.

"Beryl means well, Princess. She's just a little awkward." Oblivious to the sudden tension, Endymion patted Serenity's arm.

Kunzite snorted and crossed his arms. "The hour is late, Master. We should retire to our quarters." He paused, and pinned his Prince with a meaningful arched eyebrow. "And you to _yours_."

Endymion reluctantly agreed. It still took some persuasion on the part of the senshi to pull Serenity away, but eventually, Jupiter and Mercury led their Princess back towards her chambers. Still keeping a watchful eye on proceedings, Mars and Venus hung back and watched as the large doors to the guest suite were shut behind the Prince and the shitennou.

Once the door's latch echoed loudly against the polished stone floors and walls, Mars grabbed Venus and pulled her into a corner, trapping her. "Listen to me, Venus." She said softly, whispering in her commander's ear.

"I'm sure this can wait, Mars." Venus nearly purred as she pushed closer to the other woman and teased two fingers along the crimson warrior's jaw.

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Mars growled, arresting Venus' teasing hand and holding it tightly. "This is important. It's about Beryl."

The golden warrior's teasing smirk turned into a cautious frown. "What about her?"

"She… I can't read it clearly enough, but I think she's more of a threat than the other Earthlings."

Venus' brow furrowed. "But she's just an _aide_, not appointed by choice, I should add."

"I can't deny what I feel, Minako."

For just a moment, the Venusian let her mind wander before reminding herself sharply the context in which those words had been spoken. She stiffened. "I've never doubted your spiritual abilities, Mars. But even if you're right, I don't think there's anything we can do, given the situation. We're hardly in a situation to pick or chose the path with which we've been set on."

Mars' fists tightened. Venus was right.

"Ah, Venus?"

Mars skittered backwards, nearly jumping away from Venus, who cursed her tendency for dropping her guard just because she was in Mars' presence. She hadn't even heard the shitennou open the guest wing door. "Yes, Zoicite?"

The demure man came into view and only then saw Venus' brooding companion. He bowed his head in deference. "Excuse my interruption-"

"It's quite alright." Venus said too quickly. "How can I help you?"

Venus slipped away from Mars. The crimson warrior focused a dark glare on Zoicite. It didn't please her to find that he seemed immune to her intimidation tactics.

"I only wished to discuss with you a small detail about tomorrow's meeting." He said gently.

And as Venus led the elegant man down the hall, Mars wanted nothing more than to pull that damned self-important leader's mask off the Venusian's face. She was becoming increasingly swept up with these Earthlings and she was being _entirely_ too accommodating with the shitennou in general…

And with Zoicite specifically.

* * *

Rei returned to her room. She stayed up all night.

Minako never came to her.

* * *

"Well, don't you look worse for wear." Jupiter said gruffly.

"Piss off." Mars barked back.

It had been a rough couple of days on all the senshi. While Mercury and Jupiter had frequently been tasked with leading small groups of Terrans on 'cultural exchange' trips into the Tent Cities, Venus had been conferring with the shitennou on tactics and analytics; Mars had tended her fire in search of monsters that remained hidden and silent; and the Prince and Princess had frequently been behind closed doors, holding diplomatic… relations.

All these tasks the senshi had been faced with had also been balanced with an increased guard duty. It proved exhausting, even for the best of them.

Now, Mars was patrolling the edges of the Moon Palace alongside Jupiter, and though the unexpected company wasn't entirely unwanted, the crimson warrior had to fight the powerful urge to deck the other woman when she felt an elbow jabbing into her ribs.

"What?" Mars growled.

"Over there." Jupiter inclined her head to the left, but did not openly look in that direction.

Mars broke stride for a half second. Even a millisecond was too long to have to see the two of them together; Venus walking so close to Zoicite, her long, golden locks tumbling down her back as she laughed lightly at some shared joke between the two of them…

Mars managed to contain her boiling blood and sharply corrected her gaze back in front of her before continuing forward, heedless of the nagging image that had become all too frequent over the past couple days.

"What's up with that?" Jupiter asked quietly. "She's always with Zoicite. You'd think she and Kunzite might have more in common, given their rank, you know?"

Mars ground her molars together and grunted.

"I can kind of understand it though." Jupiter turned thoughtful and looked to her comrade. "I mean, she's probably spending so much time with him because he's quiet and brooding. He probably reminds her of _you_."

"Makoto?" The Martian asked coolly.

"Hn?"

"Do you want another black eye?"

"Ah." The Jovian halted in her steps. "No."

Mars stopped and looked back over her shoulder with an unreadable expression. "Good. Then I'll patrol north, and you'll patrol south."

"Un." Jupiter said sharply. And without another word, she turned and headed in the direction Mars had suggested.

Mars turned and did the same, and her steps quickly took her in the direction opposite the one Venus and Zoicite had been headed.

* * *

Hours later, on her return from her patrol around the Tent Cities, Mars quietly entered through one of the discreet service doors at the side of the Palace. And it was just her luck that her avoidant and circuitous route would lead her right back to her commander.

Venus pulled up short, her sandaled heels scuffing across the slick floors to avoid running into the other woman. She mastered her pleasant surprise behind a cool smile. "Patrol duty?" She asked.

"Yes."

The golden warrior frowned. "And what of your duties before the fire? Shouldn't you be-"

"The fire is quiet. I… can't stand the silence."

Mars looked away then, both from the painful duality of her words and the nagging knowledge that she could concentrate on the flames that much better had Minako stayed by her side as she used to.

But now, all she could see in the flames anymore was the image of the very woman who had caused all this turmoil.

Mars bristled in the sudden awkward silence. "Diplomatic relations going well, I assume?"

Venus accepted the feint gracefully. "Yes. In fact, Zoi and I have made lots of –"

"_Zoi?"_ Mars spoke the abbreviated name as though she were choking on distasteful food.

"Zoi." Venus repeated unremorsefully. "You know," she said, her expression growing distant, "he reminds me a lot of you."

"So I've been told." Mars growled.

Venus' wide eyes turned towards her subordinate. "You don't think that he and I…" her words trailed off, and the silence was soon enveloped in a musical giggle that she ineffectively hid behind a hand.

Mars nearly snarled at her commander. "What are you laughing at?"

With an arched eyebrow, Venus cocked a hand on her hip. "You're _jealous_."

Mars remained incredibly still. Her eyes were concealed behind the dark fall of her bangs. Her words were a gravelly whisper. "You know _nothing_."

"Rei?"

And in that instant that Venus had let her guard down, Mars had pounced, driving her commander back forcefully until they were in a position that had grown so familiar; the Martian looming over the Venusian in a barely controlled rage, their eyes burning with a passion that couldn't be sated, no matter how their heated hatred continued in different ways behind closed doors.

And tonight would be no different, though that bed of ever-burning embers had been allowed to stoke for far too long and their intensity might prove to surpass their previous couplings, for when Mars' gloved hands tore at Venus' fuku, the Venusian realized just how much she'd missed the woman she'd promised to quit…

And that three days was four to many to go without being with her.

* * *

In Serenity's private chambers, Endymion pleaded with the Princess.

"Serenity… stop."

Endymion's needy whisper caused Serenity to pause. She looked up at him through her sweaty bangs in silent alarm. "Did… did I do something wrong?"

Endymion sighed softly, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "No. No, not at all."

"Then-"

Endymion rolled to his side and stretched his body alongside Serenity's. "We can't keep this up, or you'll break my resolve."

"But isn't that…" Serenity captured her lower lip between her teeth.

"It _is_ the point. But we're not ready for something like that yet. Not yet."

The Princess frowned and her brow furrowed. "You're telling me I'm a child."

"No. You're a woman, Serenity, a _Lady_, and that's why I want to wait." Endymion ran slightly calloused fingers along the soft skin of his Princess' jaw.

Serenity seemed eased by his words, but she was still uncertain. "In my Kingdom, a woman can have a man whenever she wants him, without negative connotation."

Endymion chuckled softly. "And so is true in my Kingdom as well. But that doesn't mean that I want to rush such a thing with you. Would you be so offended if I wanted to honor you in such a way? If I told you I cared for you too much to make a plaything out of you?"

"Endymion…"

Serenity ceased her anxious habit of nibbling on her lower lip and once again met the Prince's dark gaze. Her own eyes were stormy and undecided; telling of a distant upbringing in which she'd had very little physical contact, and yet quickly learned that physical gestures were one way to keep others close by.

Endymion didn't seem to understand her turmoil, yet, despite her doubts, she yearned to believe in his tempting words. Finally, she offered him a wan smile and a nod of her head. And then, she allowed him to hold her, and in so doing, was pleasantly surprised to find that not all pleasure had to be derived in the form of sexual acts.

And before she knew it, she'd fallen asleep in his arms.

* * *

Rei stirred gently and fought the irresistible pull to wakefulness. Her brow wrinkled and she squinted her eyes against the inevitable pain of waking to a cold and empty bed – the constant reminder of her thief-in-the-night reluctant lover.

But this morning was different. This morning, there was warmth.

Rei nearly choked on her own surprised breath, for in the circle of her arms, Minako was curled comfortably, facing her, the other woman's forehead resting against Rei's bare collarbone, her gentle puffs of breath warm and inviting against Rei's skin.

It was still early then? Had Minako simply not yet woken to sneak out of her room? The Martian twisted her head at an awkward angle to chance a peek at the clock on the bedside table.

It was most certainly morning. In fact, if they didn't get up now, surely, they'd be late-

Rei tensed. Minako was waking.

Her hand, balled up and pressed above Rei's heart, tightened and then loosened. The pads of her fingers pressed against the soft skin of Rei's shoulder, and… she smiled.

"Rei…" Minako's wandering hand slid in between the Martian's arm and ribcage, and she pulled herself impossibly closer.

Rei swallowed dryly. "Minako, you're-"

"I love you, Rei."

For a moment, the Martian forgot to breathe, even… forgot _how_ to breathe. Slowly, Minako opened blinking, unfocused eyes, and in the dim light of the room and the harsh reality of wakefulness, those caramel orbs turned from happily sated to nearly fearful. Rei felt Minako freeze perceptibly, felt the sheen of goosebumps that spread quickly across her chilled skin.

"Mina-"

"I shouldn't have said that."

"But you did," Rei's voice was an uneven whisper. "You did, and you can't take it back."

"I didn't mean it," Minako protested. "And it changes nothing."

Minako's hold on Rei withered, she tried to pull back, and this caused Rei to tighten her arms around her unwilling lover that much more. Rei buried her face in her commander's hair. "It already has."

"…what?" Minako's voice was a hoarse bark.

"I… I feel the same way, Minako." It was the closest Rei could come to echoing the sentiment.

"You don't mean that." Minako said too quickly. There was a pause, a pregnant silence, and with lacking conviction, Minako repeated herself in an angry hiss. _"You don't mean that."_

"I do. You _know_ I do."

Minako began to tremble slightly, and with no small reluctance, Rei slowly released her hold on her. The Venusian wasted no time, and slipped away from Rei the moment she was free. Rei propped herself up on an elbow and eyed her commander's form – the profile of Minako's trembling shoulders where she sat tensely on the edge of the bed.

"Are you going to run now?" Rei asked.

"Are you going to stop me?" Minako countered.

Rei hung her head and whispered, "I won't hold you down."

There was a moment's pause. Her concrete gaze focused on the bedroom door, Minako never stopped shaking, though whether she was afraid of Rei or afraid of _herself_, the Martian would never fully know. Eventually, Minako stood, and in a golden glow that only accentuated her tempting nakedness, she became Venus, and without so much as a glance over her shoulder, she walked; never running - but far from composed - out of the room.

The door to her suite slammed shut – the sound deafening and eerily final. Alone in the darkness once more, Rei mastered her watering eyes and collapsed, not so much as wincing when the back of her head slammed against the headboard - for that was the kind of pain that faded quickly.

That was the kind of pain she didn't mind.

It was nowhere near as terrible as the sudden, aching knowledge that no matter how hard she tried, no matter what terms they put around what they shared, no matter how they arranged their relationship, or the very lack of one at all, she could no longer deny…

She was incomplete without Minako.

* * *

Preview: Chapter 13: Cloud Nine

"Fashionably late again," Mars growled at her commander over the din of battle which had never hesitated, not even for the leader of the senshi. The icy projectiles of Mercury's attack streamed perilously close to the ends of her long, raven hair, but Mars locked Venus in a cold glare. "It becomes you."

Venus smiled cordially and picked up her customary defensive position behind her fiery subordinate. Mars easily disregarded her presence; already she'd drawn her bow and loosed another fire arrow. Venus cocked her hip and summoned her chain when something unusual caught her attention - a flash of red around Mars' neck.

She hadn't torn off Mars' choker - the collar of her fuku.

It was a sharp, warning elbow to the ribs from Mars that forced her attention back to where it belonged – on a looming, black-cloaked ghoul that was charging her. With an off-centered smirk, Venus pushed her back against Mars and encircled her attacker with her chain. She barely blinked when her mighty tug sheered the creature in half. Leaning back, she whispered in her subordinate's ear.

"So, did you figure it out?"

"Figure _what_ out? That you're a coward?" Mars unleashed four spinning discs of fire that took down one of the creatures that threatened Mercury and Jupiter.

"No," Venus narrowed her eyes but ignored Mars' reference to her actions earlier that morning that had begun with a mistaken confession and had ended with a hasty retreat. She casually picked off another monster with another beam of light. "I'm referring to the fact that you haven't ripped off your _collar_ that you've been so adamant about. Did you figure out what it is that you're fighting for?"

The Martian's blood boiled even hotter. She locked eyes with her commander over her shoulder. Was it so easy to be so casual? After a confession of love? After blatantly denying what they meant to each other? She couldn't fight the undertow, and could only hope to do her best to tread water. Mars' jaw shut with a resounding click – all those unsaid words churning below the surface.

With no further recourse for her greatest enemy and closest friend, Mars threw herself into her next attack wholeheartedly and smiled grimly when her target burst into flames.

If she really wanted to know, Venus could figure it out on her own.


	13. Chapter 13

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 13: Sabotage  
By: trusuprise

'Cloud Nine' was a Terran term that Serenity had picked up from the Earthlings, and as she nearly floated down the hall towards the guest wing; light on her feet and with a quiet song on her lips, Cloud Nine was where she felt she was.

Endymion had taught her something crucial the night before; something she was still attempting to come to terms with, but something that felt _right_. And though he had left her room to return to his quarters early that morning, she still had high hopes of meeting him in his before he started his day.

She fanned her fingers out to the side of her body and they drifted through the spiny points of a potted palm that she all but skipped past. Her anxious heart beat a pace faster as the guards that stood at attention on either side of the guest wing entrance bowed to her as she floated through.

She enjoyed the curious looks that the Earthlings gave her, though she didn't so much as acknowledge any of them that weren't Endymion. She passed Kunzite, who reluctantly stepped aside when she ventured down the protected hallway that led to the Prince's guest quarters, and when she placed her palm on the ornate handle of the large door, she forced herself to quell the butterflies in her stomach.

But when a chilly presence tingled at the edge of Serenity's consciousness and she suddenly went ramrod still, she was almost too slow to avoid door as it opened towards her. And although the person on the other side paused and had yet to reveal themselves, somehow, she _knew_ who it was.

Standing tall and alert, a cold expression of concentration etched into her stony features, Serenity nearly growled. "Beryl."

"Not bad," the disembodied voice said, "you seem to have some spiritual abilities of your own." The red haired woman finally came into view then, sidestepping through the doorway and closing the door behind her. She leaned against the door suggestively and snorted. "Though it seems you may be lacking in other areas of expertise."

Serenity turned her narrow gaze to Endymion's aide. "Explain yourself."

Beryl's lips curled into a snarl. "Endymion will _always_ see you as a little girl, Princess of the Moon, and _never_ as a full grown woman like myself. Why else would he have returned to his quarters last night?"

Serenity's gaze lost its focus and Beryl's malicious laugh seemed to at once both deafen her and fade away. Unconsciously, her idle fingers twirled through her dark hair, and as Beryl pushed past her and sauntered down the hallway, Serenity's glowing eyes remained locked on Endymion's closed door before her.

* * *

A beam of light cut through the air. It darted around a stream of frozen water, whizzed under a bolt of electricity, and ultimately sliced through and completely dissipated a fire arrow, where it embedded itself in the heart of the attacker Mars had targeted.

"Fashionably late again," Mars growled at her commander over the din of battle which had never hesitated, not even for the leader of the senshi. The icy projectiles of Mercury's attack streamed perilously close to the ends of her long, raven hair, but Mars locked Venus in a cold glare. "It becomes you."

Venus smiled cordially and picked up her customary defensive position behind her fiery subordinate. Mars easily disregarded her presence; already she'd drawn her bow and loosed another fire arrow. Venus cocked her hip and summoned her chain when something unusual caught her attention - a flash of red around Mars' neck.

Rei hadn't torn off Mars' choker - the collar of her fuku.

It was a sharp, warning elbow to the ribs from Mars that forced her attention back to where it belonged – on a looming, black-cloaked ghoul that was charging right at her. With an off-centered smirk, Venus pushed her back against Mars' and encircled her attacker with her chain. She barely blinked when her mighty tug sheered the creature in half. Leaning back, she whispered in her subordinate's ear.

"So, did you figure it out?"

"Figure _what_ out? That you're a coward?" Mars unleashed four spinning discs of fire that took down one of many creatures that threatened Mercury and Jupiter.

"No," Venus narrowed her eyes but ignored Mars' reference to her actions earlier that morning that had begun with a mistaken confession and had ended with a hasty retreat. She casually picked off another monster with a beam of light. "I'm referring to the fact that you haven't ripped off that _collar_ you've been so adamant about. Did you finally figure out what it is that you're fighting for?"

The Martian's blood boiled even hotter. She locked eyes with her commander over her shoulder. Was it so easy to be so casual? After a confession of love? After blatantly denying what they meant to each other? She couldn't fight the undertow, could only hope to do her best to tread water. Mars' jaw shut with a resounding click – all those unsaid words churning below the surface.

With no further recourse for her greatest enemy and closest friend, Mars threw herself into her next attack wholeheartedly and smiled grimly when her target burst into flames.

If she really wanted to know, Venus could figure it out on her own.

* * *

Damage control had arrived quickly, and the senshi had been able to slip away from the scene easily, pulled in another direction by a competing priority.

"A secret meeting?" Jupiter asked. "I'd have thought Serenity would be far too preoccupied with…" Remembering Mercury's presence, Jupiter caught herself and amended her words, "with diplomatic relations to think of hosting a karaoke party with her senshi."

"Serenity didn't call this meeting. Luna did." Venus detransformed into Minako and her soldiers reluctantly followed suit.

"Luna? Her tutor? Does she even have the authority to-"

"Luna has more authority than _any_ of us." Minako said to Makoto over her shoulder sharply.

The rest of the trip was conducted in a hurried silence, with Minako leading the way and Rei bringing up the rear – the two women seemed eager to maintain a predetermined amount of space between themselves that didn't go unnoticed by the others.

When they stopped at the closed doors of the Crown Karaoke, it was Ami who voiced her concerns. "Isn't it too early for the Crown to be open? It's only past breakfast time."

Minako fished in her pockets and pulled out a plastic card. "I can probably jimmy the lock."

"Um, that won't be necessary." Makoto stepped forward with a slight blush on her cheeks and raised a key ring from which several keys jingled.

"Way to go, Makoto-san." Minako offered her subordinate a suggestive smirk and an elbow to the ribs. "I'd hoped your thing with Motoki-kun would prove to be beneficial."

"Look, let's just be quiet about it, alright?" Makoto scratched at the back of her neck and was all too aware of Ami's avoidant gaze. "Motoki's apartment is right over top of the Crown, and if he hears us, well… this meeting won't be very secret, will it?"

Makoto slipped the key into the lock and cautiously eased the door open just wide enough for her to push her comrades through one by one. She slipped in after them and shut the door behind her just as cautiously, taking care to relock it. The girls nodded to each other, and Minako led the way down the dark corridor that finally brought them to their secret door.

Inside, the lights were already on. Rei's hackles stood on end – there was definitely another presence in the room, though she didn't see any one-

"Down here." A voice called tersely, as though well versed in dealing with the unexpected.

"Ah! Luna." Minako spotted the black cat perched primly on the tabletop. She trotted down the staircase to take her customary orange chair, the others following slowly behind her. Rei dawdled a few steps behind, eyeing the small cat as though it were the first she'd seen.

It was the second, actually, and blunt and to the point, Rei's child-like curiosity reared its head once again. "You're Serenity's _tutor_?"

Minako and Makoto held stifled chuckles behind their hands as Luna bristled.

"Yes," the cat said sharply. "I am both tutor and advisor to the Princess. Do you find a problem with this, Mars Rei?"

The Martian retracted as if burnt. "Ah, no. I just didn't expect to meet another talking cat."

Luna rolled her eyes. "Then, I assume you've had the misfortune of meeting Artemis."

Rei nodded, and that was when she felt Minako's eyes lingering on her. The slightest of stolen glances confirmed her suspicion, and had she cared to analyze Minako's wistful gaze, it might have been obvious that the Venusian was remembering the time she had introduced her to Artemis, and perhaps Rei could have allowed herself some insight into her commander's true feelings.

"Take your seat, Mars." Luna said curtly with an agitated flick of her tail. Rei was quick to obey, though it didn't go unnoticed that she pulled her red chair away from the table and scooted as far away from Minako as was possible.

Luna sat back on her haunches and cleared her throat. "As the Princess has been otherwise preoccupied with… diplomatic relations, I have been partially reassigned to studying the monster attacks that have been plaguing the Moon. We've been battling these creatures for some time, and have devoted our energies to combating them without further exploring the fundamental questions such as where they come from, and why they're attacking us."

Minako reached out as though she wanted to rest her hand on Rei's forearm. Catching herself, she quickly retracted her hand and held it tightly with the other as a reminder. "Mars has tried to answer these questions with her spiritual abilities." She said distantly.

"So I've heard." Luna said with a grim voice. "But you haven't been able to give us any details of substance."

"No." Rei examined the smooth white tabletop. "I can only sense the monsters' whereabouts once they've initiated an attack. When I try to look further…" there was a tense silence and Rei's' dark eyes became unfocused. She examined her hands that fidgeted in her lap. "When I try to look further, I get pushed back. Something protects them. Something frightening."

"Mars?" Luna prodded.

"Luna, " Minako leaned across the table and pulled the feline advisor's attention back to her. "I understand that you've been doing independent research on the monsters. Have you found anything? Anything we might be able to use to our advantage, no matter how far fetched it may seem?"

"Ah," Luna straightened and one ear flicked to the side. "There are… some leads we are looking into."

"Leads?" Minako prompted.

"More like myths and legends. The only time in history we've seen an enemy like this was during the resurgence of the ginzuishou."

"Ginzuishou?" Ami asked.

Luna flexed her claws distractedly for a moment before retracting them and clearing her throat. "It was millennia ago – so long ago that the account has been relegated to the status of myth, for the accuracy of the information is questionable at best."

The black cat looked up then, and seeing that this information hadn't given the senshi reason to discredit her words, she pressed forward tentatively. "The ginzuishou was said to be a magical crystal that possessed special powers."

Ami leaned forward on her elbows, the academic in her eager for more information. "What kind of special powers?"

"The ginzuishou manifests itself in the soul of a person, seemingly at random. It chooses an otherwise pure soul and twists those kind thoughts and wishes into fear and uncertainty, and taints the holder of this crystal."

Minako crossed one leg over the other. "And the monsters? Where do they factor into this myth?"

Luna slowly met the gaze of the leader of the senshi. "In the myth, they were called _youma_, and the monsters that you four have been fighting bear a striking resemblance to those youma that the holder of the ginzuishou can summon."

There was a strained silence that was eventually broken by Rei. "And the last time the ginzuishou was seen? What did the… youma do?"

"It seems that although they were a force to be reckoned with, it's not the monsters that caused as much of a problem as the holder of the ginzuishou itself."

"Luna?" Makoto asked.

"It seems that the holder of the ginzuishou is capable of feats such as telekinesis and… energy based attacks."

Minako's brow furrowed. "Energy attacks?"

Luna nodded distantly. "The last holder of the crystal was reported to have destroyed a large portion of the original capital of the Moon Kingdom, killing the Queen, the Princess, and a large majority of the Lunar population in the process."

The senshi looked at each other, each achingly aware that, due to the failing state of the habitability of the solar system, the entire civilization of the Moon Kingdom was now reduced to crammed quarters in a radius of two dozen square miles around the Moon Palace.

Luna cleared her throat, and nearly each of the girls jumped. "I'll remind you that this is just a myth, though, and we can not be certain, nor base any actions on this information. The Eternity Main System has remained inconclusive in a match between the two seemingly random events."

Ami brightened with this information. "Luna, the Eternity Main System has supported the Moon Kingdom since time memorable, correct?"

"Yes, why?"

"Then, if the monsters _were_ here, the Eternity Main System must have recorded some vital information about them; energy patterns, characteristics. You just have to know how to look for it and then compare the two to one another."

"Ami-chan…"

"Wouldn't it be true that if we actively recorded the bio-data on the monsters' energy patterns, they may synch up with the previous attacks and prove or disprove a match?"

Luna's tail twitched from side to side. "I suppose it is a possibility. The remains of the bodies we'd taken to the morgue were inconclusive, but perhaps a live specimen…"

"I should be able to create a program that can capture their signatures." Ami said, her eyes unfocused as though she were already working out the details. "It could be a start, anyway. If we can establish a positive connection, we can then worry about the actual holder of the ginzuishou."

"Let's hope it won't come to that." Luna said darkly.

A moment passed and Minako straightened, proud of her youngest warrior. "Good thinking, Ami-chan."

Ami beamed at the praise and fidgeted slightly under the attention it granted her. Luna cleared her throat "It's settled then. Though, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it _won't_ be a match, and that this is just some chance occurrence. Until then, be cautious and at the ready. It won't do to let the Earthlings know about the dangers that the city has to offer."

"Understood." Minako said sharply.

With a slight sigh, the feline advisor hopped off the tabletop and trotted up the stairs. She turned around just as she was exiting through the magical door. "You may want to get out of here pretty quickly," she said, "the owner of this place will be opening for business soon, and it wouldn't do for the four of you to be caught already inside. Besides, I think each of you has responsibilities you're already late for."

The girls rose quickly, and joined Luna on the landing. "What of you?" Makoto asked the cat. "How did you get in here?"

Luna smirked. "The fool boy that works here always leaves one of the back windows open." She winked then, and took off down a service hallway.

The girls retraced their steps to the front door and quickly slipped out of the Crown. Once outside, Makoto waved away her comrades as she fished in her pocket for her keys, and Minako, Rei and Ami began heading for the Palace. Just as the Jovian had safely locked the door behind her and turned around, she nearly ran into a figure carrying a handful of bags that were piled so high that they nearly blocked his vision.

"Mako-chan? What are you doing here?"

Makoto winced once she realized who was behind the packages. "Motoki-kun!" She exclaimed through clenched teeth. "I was… just coming to see you?"

"Great!" Motoki's smile beamed over top of the bags he carried. "Then would you mind opening the door for me?"

Makoto caught sight of her comrades who had paused a block away. She caught Minako's perceptible nod, and knew what she had to do.

"Sure!" She said brightly to Motoki, and fished in her pocket for the keys she had just replaced.

As she unlocked the door and held it wide for Motoki to enter, she watched as her friends turned and headed back to the Palace. Achingly, she caught sight of Ami's hesitant body language as the small woman glanced back in her direction indecisively.

* * *

After a long day of diplomatic talks and tours around the Moon Palace, Serenity longed for companionship while Endymion was holding conference with the shitennou. Ami filled that void for her, though it may have been more out of obligation than desire. She should have been working on the program to diagnose the compatibility between the monster threats they'd identified and the ancient myth of the ginzuishou, but she had been both unable and unwilling to refuse Serenity's request.

For hours, Ami watched over the Princess, captivated by the intense concentration the other woman displayed with an intricate sewing pattern that she weaved into a long piece of fabric.

Eventually, Serenity finished knitting the ends of the tassels that adorned the bottom of her creation. She held the ivory colored piece of fabric in front of her and nodded with satisfaction.

"What is it?" Ami asked, nearly jumping at the sound of her own voice.

Serenity smiled and pressed the soft fabric to her cheek. "It's a scarf!"

"Terran clothing?" Ami asked, her brows furrowed. "I fail to see its usefulness."

"It's for cold weather, silly!" Serenity rose from her cross-legged position on the floor. Shaking the numbness out of her limbs, she approached her friend who was perched stiffly on the edge of a white couch. With a smile, Serenity wrapped the scarf around Ami's neck, covering the Mercurian's chin as she tossed one tasseled end over Ami's shoulder.

"It looks good on you!" Serenity proclaimed happily before laying a light kiss on Ami's lips and then pulling back to observe her handiwork.

"Cotton is a poor choice for warmth." Avoiding eye contact, Ami fingered the soft material. "Perhaps fleece, or a synthetic, wind-blocking material might have been a more efficient choice."

"Ami-chan…" Serenity stepped closer and placed two fingers under her closest friend's chin. "Ami-chan, look at me."

The Mercurian looked up, shocked out of her tentative shyness when she noticed that Serenity's previously bright happiness had drained into a paled, pinched expression. "Serenity-chan… what's wrong?"

"Endymion…" Serenity caught her lower lip between her teeth for a moment. "He refused to make love to me last night."

Ami's breath caught in her throat – the pain of being subjected to information she didn't want to hear coupled with her inability to decide the appropriate response in such a situation. She couldn't form an answer, and only looked to her Princess uncertainly.

"I thought I understood why he refused me. I thought it was a good thing and that he wanted to honor me,, but…" Serenity paused, her lower lip trembling. "Ami-chan… you like me, don't you?" She laced her hands behind Ami's neck and stepped forward between the other woman's legs, tilting her head down so that her lips brushed against Ami's forehead. In the strained silence that followed, she tightened her hold around the shaky woman, and drew her lips to Ami's ear. "Answer me, Ami-chan."

Ami closed her eyes. Tentatively, she returned the embrace. "Yes, Serenity-chan."

"Yes _what_, Ami-chan?" Serenity dipped her head lower. She pushed away the scarf and her teeth nipped lightly at Ami's neck.

"Yes, I…" Ami gasped when she felt the warmth of Serenity's tongue at her neck. "Yes, I like you."

Serenity pulled away only slightly. She took in her best friend's crimson blush with a small smile. "Then will you make a woman, Ami-chan? Will you make love to me?"

"I… I…"

A predatory smile tugged at Serenity's lips. Her fingers caressed Ami's cheek and she leaned in again. "Shh." She whispered, and in that moment, she took the decision out of Ami's hands.

* * *

Her feet felt leaden as she trudged along the path on the outskirts of the Moon Palace proper. It had been a long night of patrolling, and Jupiter was eager for some rest, but she knew she couldn't until she found her replacement. She checked her chronometer again; surprised that Mercury would be one minute late, let alone thirty.

A familiar footfall – one that sounded equally as tired as her own – alerted her to her comrade's arrival, but Jupiter's smile faded when Ami turned the corner instead of Mercury.

Despite her exhaustion, Jupiter increased her pace and had to take a step backwards at the last moment; Ami was so out of it that she nearly ran right into her.

"Ami-chan?"

Ami picked at the sleeve of her shirt. "I'm sorry I'm late, Jupiter. I'll take over your shift now."

The blue tinged glow that heralded Ami's transformation enveloped her body, but Jupiter's sudden grip on her shoulder halted her change's fruition, and Ami retained her civilian form.

"Ami… Ami-chan," Jupiter demanded, "Look at me."

The Mercurian's tear rimed, blue tinged eyes shot upwards at the Jovian. "Don't say that!" Ami shouted. "Don't say that the way _she_ does." She hissed, and her gaze fell back to the ground.

"Let me guess," with no small amount of effort, Jupiter collected herself. "Serenity spent all night gushing to you about Endymion?"

"Not exactly." Ami muttered.

"I told you before; unless you confess your love to her, she'll never understand why it hurts you to hear how she feels for Endymion."

"You don't understand!" Ami exclaimed, her brow furrowing and her lips contorting into a pained frown. _"He wouldn't fuck her!"_

"Ami-chan…" This time Jupiter did recoil, as much from Ami's tone and language as from the information itself. "That doesn't make any sense! They've been all over each other!"

"I don't know the details." Ami's voice settled into despondence. "I only know that she thought she could fix the _problem_ if I made her a woman first."

Jupiter's voice was an unsteady whisper. "She asked you to… to… and did you?"

"What does it matter if I did or didn't?" Tears finally started spilling from Ami's eyes. She swallowed a lump in her throat and exhaled heavily. "God, maybe if I were as free spirited as a Jovian and I could see countless others at once, then this wouldn't _hurt_ so bad!"

Makoto frowned. "If this is about Motoki, I told you, he's just a distraction. He-"

"Why do you think I'd care about you and Motoki-kun?" Ami gasped. She blushed. She sniffled. Finally, she looked away quickly. "I'm sorry, Makoto-san. I didn't mean to say that."

Jupiter's white-gloved hand balled into a tight fist. Her brows furrowed and she seemed to debate her words, her actions. Finally, she stepped forward, heedless of Ami's surprised expression, and folded the small woman into her arms.

"If you were with me," Jupiter proclaimed, "then Serenity wouldn't hurt you any more." She paused then, and pulled Ami even closer. "And I wouldn't see Motoki anymore, either."

"I just… I just need some time to myself, Makoto-san." Ami sniffled and buried her head against Jupiter's chest. "I still love her too much."

"Did you tell her that, Ami-chan?"

"I told her… that I _liked_ her."

"That's not the same." Jupiter forced a laugh that fell flat. She shut her eyes, wincing at her own foolish words, and rested her head atop Ami's. "You have to tell her what you really feel if you hope to sway her against Endymion. It may still be possible."

Ami's quiet crying stopped. "Makoto-san?"

Makoto blinked back tears of her own and hugged Ami tighter. "Why don't you go get some rest? I'll take your shift."

"But-"

"No buts." Jupiter said sharply.

Ami nodded, but it was all too obvious that she didn't want to leave the warmth of her friend's arms. And Jupiter didn't force her to.

* * *

Despite the hours Rei had wasted before its heat, the fire had offered her no answers and no traces of the monsters. Worn and tired, she had limped her way down the staircase from her abandoned rooftop garden, eager for some much needed rest.

But she stiffened when she felt a familiar aura as she approached the senshi wing of the Palace. "Aren't you supposed to be out patrolling?" She called to the empty hallway.

Jupiter never broke stride as she rounded the corner. She nodded at Rei and indicated the woman that slept soundly in her arms. Her body limp and her face sporting a doleful frown, Ami was quiet and still in Jupiter's hold. The Jovian noticed Rei's unamused smirk and she frowned at the Martian.

"She fell asleep! I couldn't just leave her out there." Jupiter hissed. "Now drop the holier-than-thou act and get the door, would'ja?"

Rei snorted but hurried past Jupiter to Ami's door. She noted absently that the Mercurian's room was as dark as she kept her own, and she flicked the light on as Jupiter turned her body sideways to get herself and Ami through the threshold.

Rei didn't seem to think that any further conversation was necessary. She turned to leave, but paused at the doorway when Jupiter called her name. Rei remained still and waited.

"Tell me how you do it, Rei." Jupiter said quietly, her voice almost reverent in the silence of the room. "Tell me how you deal with the pain of all the on again-off again stuff with Minako."

For a long moment, Rei was silent, her back to the room and her dark gaze unfocused towards the hallway. Finally, she turned and looked back over her shoulder.

"I don't." She said simply. What she didn't say, but which was fully understood, was the depth of which her tactic hurt her.

Jupiter sighed. She examined the woman sleeping in her arms as though she'd never seen her before, as though she'd never fought alongside her or had her stomach turned to butterflies while in her presence. "I think I need to give up on Ami-chan. It's just not going to work out between us."

Rei smiled smally, all the pain she felt etched deeply into that uncertain gesture. "All I can tell you, is that if it's really worth it, you won't give up on her."

Jupiter looked up and returned Rei's hesitant smile, and without another word or a glance behind her, Rei slipped into the hallway and headed towards her own room.

* * *

Rei shut the door to her room behind her and stumbled through the darkness of her antechamber. She nearly tripped over the leg of an end table – the result of a muddled mixture of exhaustion and the uneasy knowledge that she'd never become comfortable enough with her surroundings to truly learn her way around.

She passed through the doorway to her bedroom and collapsed on her bed, falling face first on the side normally reserved for her on such a night after all other frustrated and heated activities had finally ceased.

Despite the pillow that hampered her breathing, Rei had promptly begun to drift off into a restless sleep when a hesitant voice called her name.

"Mars?"

Dark eyes shot open and the Martian tossed herself onto her side. She hadn't even sensed her commander's presence. She wanted to deck Minako, to jump away from the bed, to pull the other woman close… all she could manage was a startled squeak.

"I thought you could sense my aura better when you were mad at me." Minako taunted.

Rei could envision the smug smirk her commander wore, and she growled in response to that flippant attitude. "After this morning, I'd have thought we'd be done with this. Why do you keep coming to me?"

Crawling on her forearms, Minako inched closer in the darkness. "It's your punishment for still wanting me."

"_My_ punishment?" Rei dodged Minako's lips. "This seems to hurt you as much as it hurts me."

"Shut up, Mars." Insistent fingers cupped the Martian's chin and held their target still so Minako could force a kiss on her subordinate. "We've been over this before," Minako whispered into Rei's mouth. "I have a duty to the Princess. I can't have a relationship and be a leader at the same time."

"No, you can't, can you?" Rei said dryly, forcibly rolling her commander back into the pillows. She crawled on top of the Venusian and her fingers pawed at Minako's top, nearly ripping it off her body as she tugged it over Minako's head. "And yet you toy around with me as it suits you."

With an arched eyebrow, Minako's fingers paused at the zipper to Rei's pants. "You know this and yet you continue to allow it to happen."

Rei growled into Minako's mouth. "Because I know what I want, and I'm not going to deny myself that. I refuse to feel any less for you for your stupidity."

Minako narrowed her eyes and rolled Rei underneath her. "You can't possibly understand my motives."

The Martian made a final play for dominance and she pinned Minako underneath her body once more. "I understand more than you could possibly imagine." She grinned sourly. "For someone who claims that love is their element, you seem entirely too eager to sabotage yourself with heartbreak."

"And I suppose you have all the answers, then." Minako's voice was suddenly quiet, and she remained eerily still underneath her subordinate.

Rei snorted derisively. "You need to figure out what you lack on your own, but _trust_ me when I say it's not love you lack for me."

Minako frowned and dug her fingernails into the Martian's back. "Shut up and fuck me, Rei."

"And we won't have a repeat of this morning?" Rei asked coldly.

"I made that mistake once. It won't happen again." Minako smirked. "I'll be gone before you wake."

"For your sake, you'd better be."

Minako was unable to form a coherent response to Rei's scathing words, for no matter how _wrong_ this twisted parody of what they once shared was, her labored breaths had already devolved into needy groans and desperate pants as Rei slipped her fingers into her.

* * *

Preview, Chapter 14: Morals

"Tell me where you were last night, Mars."

Rei's eyes shot open at the venom that laced her commander's hoarse voice. There was a fire in the Venusian's eyes that matched the frustration in her tightly controlled movements. Forcing her sense of calm, Rei allowed Minako to brood a moment longer.

"I wasn't aware I had a prior commitment." Rei finally replied.

Minako stomped forward, stopping in front of the stone fire pit, and Rei wondered if the barrier of her fire could hope to contain the Venusian if the willful woman decided it wasn't enough to stop her.

"I thought you said you wouldn't deny yourself that which you wanted." Minako spat, and smirked in righteous indignation when Rei's jaw clacked shut. "Now, you'll tell me where you were last night."

Rei acquiesced, though she refused to show submission by releasing eye contact. "I spent the night at Crown with Ami-chan."

Minako's smirk became a snarl. "Drinking away your sorrows with an underage woman?"

"Hardly." Rei spat. "I'd never be so pitiful." She smirked predatorily. "_My_ morals have _never_ been in question, Minako."


	14. Chapter 14

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 14: Morals  
By: trusuprise

Lounging in a courtyard ringed by plants and flowers, it was more than a little awkward for all the senshi and the shitennou to be together just for a social call. In the garden's center, the only one who seemed truly content was Serenity, who sat proudly and primly in Endymion's lap. The Prince humored her, but for the most part, kept his hands to himself. The senshi and the shitennou kept watchful eyes on their charges, but largely avoided looking at each other.

"All of you will be leaving soon." Her voice morose, Serenity turned to the shitennou.

Kunzite and Nephrite didn't attempt to mask their pleased smirks, which faded only when the Princess of the Moon made her next suggestion.

"We should have a big celebration before you return to Earth!" Serenity included a sweeping glance to the shitennou in her excitement, and the Prince's guards either nodded or tentatively smiled tightly at her exuberance.

"That's an excellent idea, Serenity, but what could be a grand enough event for the send off of our honored guests?" Venus asked, though her tightly pinched lips.

Serenity touched a finger to her chin. "Are any of the cities hosting festivals? There's almost always something going on, but we need a really _good_ one."

Jupiter brightened slightly. "Isn't the day after tomorrow the last day of the Feriae Marti?"

There was a long moment of silence until Venus barked, "Mars, answer the question."

"Yes." Mars spat. She glanced at her chronometer with no small amount of disinterest. "The day after tomorrow is the twenty-fifth, which marks Hilaria, the last day of the Feriae Marti."

"And what can you tell us about the nature of this 'Festival of Mars'?" Venus asked, her patience wearing thin.

"The festival is designed to petition for fertility in both land and people. It's celebrated by dancing, gift exchanges, and displays of martial prowess."

"Not to mention the gambling, feasting, and horse racing." Jupiter said, rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

Venus nodded to Jupiter and frowned at Mars for the way she downplayed the event. "I understand it's one of the most visually and spiritually appealing festivals held across the solar system." She said to Serenity. "I'm sure our Martian civilians will put on a _great_ show."

Serenity clasped her hands before her. "That sounds wonderful! It's decided then. We'll attend the festivities in the Martian city tomorrow!"

There was a unanimous agreement with the Princess' plan, though none of it very excited, and they all lapsed into an awkward silence once again. Venus struggled to find a topic of conversation. It was the diplomat in her to keep them talking, and when she figured it out, she was pleased to have found a way to both stroke the Prince's ego while back handedly insulting Mars.

"Endymion," Venus said disarmingly, "When I had the honor to watch you train with him the other day, Zoicite told me that you're nearly unmatched in swordsmanship. How did you become such an accomplished swordsman?"

Endymion's eyes brightened with excitement. "I attribute all of my skill to Kunzite. He taught me everything I know."

At his place near the courtyard's exit, the leader of the shitennou stood stiffly with a haughty smirk which was quickly replaced with a warm smile only when his Prince looked in his direction.

Endymion turned his inquisitive gaze back to Venus. "Why do you ask?"

Venus smiled mischievously. "One of my warriors is reluctant to use her dagger in battle."

"Is that so?" Endymion leaned forward slightly and unconsciously tightened his hold on Serenity. "For me, my skill improved drastically with the help of some simple eye-hand coordination techniques."

"Hmm." Venus' aimless pacing brought her behind Mars where she sat on the edge of a stone bench, and Venus rested her gloved hands on Mars' tense shoulders. "Perhaps Mars could benefit from your techniques, then."

"I do _not_ need any help." Mars carefully controlled the amount of venom in her voice. Venus was playing dirty, but she refused to make a fool out of herself in front of the Terrans. "I'm simply more skilled with the flame bow than the Mars dagger."

Venus hummed. "Yes, but long-range attacks are not always useful in close quarters. Don't you agree, Mars?"

"You tell me." Mars countered. "I haven't seen you use the Venus dagger in just as long."

"Oh?" Venus raised an eyebrow. "But we're talking about _you_ here."

There was a tense moment as the two warriors glared at one another, as though they'd forgotten their captive audience. Jupiter's foot tapped restlessly against the flagstone and she cleared her throat loudly.

Venus and Mars released each other from their venomous glares. Not entirely oblivious to the tension, Endymion offered a half-smile. "I have something that might help."

He stood then and carefully deposited Serenity on her feet. "I'll be right back." He said, more to the Princess than to anyone else, before laying a light kiss on her forehead. Kunzite followed his Prince as Endymion strode purposefully out of the courtyard, and after he could no longer be seen, Serenity took the seat the Prince had vacated resignedly, suddenly looking much less contented.

Venus finally realized that her hands still rested on Mars' shoulders. She retracted them slowly and was all too aware of that Mars sighed and relaxed the moment she stepped away. Reminding herself that she had other matters of importance, she kept her expression neutral and took a seat on the stone railing next to Jupiter.

"Have you heard from Ami-chan?" She asked quietly, so as not to attract the attention of the Princess or the shitennou.

Jupiter shook her head discreetly. "She wasn't in her room this morning."

"I tried her communicator earlier," Venus whispered. "She didn't answer." The thin, white line of her lips faltered. "You don't think that… the monsters…"

"No."

Venus looked to Mars who stared in the opposite direction – listening but not really interacting, tapping into her spiritual powers. Venus nodded her thanks anyway, grateful despite Mars' obvious spite.

She turned back to Jupiter. "She's gone AWOL, then?"

It was some time before Jupiter shrugged uncertainly.

"Do you know if anything happened with her?"

Venus was given a similar vague notion from Jupiter. She frowned and looked to Mars, but if the crimson warrior knew anything, her stoic form would reveal no answers.

"Endymion!" Serenity's exclamation startled the others. The Princess jumped to her feet and looked towards the courtyard entrance, and Venus wasn't the only one to think it odd when the Prince didn't appear for several moments after the nearly prophetic announcement, a smile on his lips and a small machine in his arms.

Smiling shyly, Endymion set the boxy contraption down on the stone bench in the middle of the garden. He flipped a switch on its bottom and it lurched to life with a sudden hiss of air. Mars and Jupiter jumped to their feet, hips cocked and battle ready, but a reproachful glare from Venus stilled them.

"It may seem a little strange, but I rarely go anywhere without this machine." Endymion said. He pulled a handful of brightly colored and intricately folded pieces of papers from the depths of his cape and poured them into the machine's top. A second later, the pieces of paper were spat out its side, and in a shower of blue, red, green, and orange, they flitted to the ground harmlessly.

Mars and Jupiter relaxed, if only slightly, and Kunzite offered his Prince two tapered pieces of wood. Endymion walked around to the front of the contraption, and after a moment of concentration, focused on the floating pieces of paper. Suddenly, his hand darted forward and he trapped piece after piece of the papers between the pincers.

Mars wandered forward, her curiosity getting the better of her and contradicting the pinched frown on her lips.

Endymion turned towards the Martian. "Would you like to try?"

Before she had the chance to back away, Mars found the wooden pinchers being thrust into her hand. She looked at them experimentally for a moment, her fingers trying to duplicate the pinching motion Endymion had performed with them. After a few tries, she'd gotten the scissor motion down pat, and nodded to herself confidently.

"What are they?" She asked, her normal derision toned down by her curiosity. She managed to ignore her commander's stifled chuckle as she experimentally clacked the wooden pinchers together repeatedly.

"They're called hashi." Endymion explained. "We use them as eating utensils."

Mars frowned at the cumbersome utensils before looking to the Prince with no small amount of wonder. "You _eat_ with these things?"

This time, Venus' laugh was too loud to ignore and Mars turned with a self-conscious blush and a nasty glare. Her commander tried to swallow her chuckle, but Mars noted the softening of the other woman's expression all too well.

"Whatever." With a derisive snort, Mars turned back to Endymion. "Make it work." She grumbled.

Endymion and Serenity gathered the papers off the grass and poured them back into the machine. Mars' eyes narrowed, focused on the chute where her target would come from. Her body was poised and tense, her hand cramped around the unusual sticks positioned between her fingers.

A rush of colors exploded towards her, and like a striking snake, her hand shot into the swarm of paper. She pinched the hashi together once, twice, three times, each time, carefully plucking a piece of red paper from the midst of the colorful blizzard.

Finally, the machine spat out the last of its ammunition and Mars pulled the last crimson sheet out of thin air. She turned then, her stony face as expressionless as if she'd just walked off the battlefield, and addressed her commander.

"Is that good enough for you, Venus?"

Venus stood with her lips parted, struggling for words and quickly loosing her chance for an appropriate response.

Endymion stepped forward with helpful intention. "That was amazing! It's not your skill or accuracy that's in question." He took the hashi from Mars, whose gaze was still firmly locked on her commander, and he offered the utensils to Venus.

"Would you care to try, Venus?"

The leader of the senshi looked at the hashi blankly. "Ah… no." She managed weakly, but when she turned back to find Mars, her subordinate was already stalking away.

* * *

Jupiter knew better than to mention the hashi incident to her comrade, but when she found Mars patrolling alongside her instead of spending time before the fire that Mars had insisted was silent, she found the tension between them stifling.

So, on a gradual loop that led between the Moon Palace and the Venusian Tent City, Jupiter decided to sing to fill the voice between them. She hummed quietly at first, but the familiar, primal tune eventually got the better of her, and she found her feet stepping in time to the beat as her wordless humming became louder.

"That sounds familiar." Mars' grumpy voice nonetheless held a hint of interested curiosity.

"It's an old Jovian tune." Jupiter said merrily. "I never memorized the words, since it was written in an ancient dialect, but it's a tale of two star-crossed lovers destined to an ill-fated love that was doomed to end in the destruction of both their lands. It was one of my favorites when I was a kid. I always liked the part about the monsters the Princess' peoples could summon. My mom used to sing it to me all the… Mars?"

Jupiter looked over her shoulder and saw that the crimson warrior seemed rooted to the spot several paces behind her, and she hurried back to her comrade.

"The Martians have a similar tale." Mars explained quietly. "The rhythm is similar as well." She frowned, deep in concentration as though she were on the verge of making a greater connection.

Jupiter shrugged. "Well, it _is_ a fairy tale. If there's one thing that's universal, a good story should be it."

Mars seemed to be yanked violently out of her thoughts and she narrowed her eyes at Jupiter. "Minako once told me the same thing."

"Ah." Jupiter said, heedless to the growing danger. "They have a _beautiful_ song version of the tale. In fact… Mars?"

Mars snapped then, and in a sudden rush of strength, she pushed Jupiter back against the limestone wall of a crumbling building. She pressed her forearm against the Jovian's neck, pinning her, her dark eyes wild.

"Mar-" Jupiter choked, unable to swallow enough of a breath as the Martian viciously cut off her air supply.

"How do you know about that song!" Mars' growling voice deepened in timbre, grew in volume, drew a shudder from the tall woman she dominated.

"Did she sing it to you, too?" Mars shouted. "Does she string you along and play the same games with you when no one else is looking?"

"Mar-" Jupiter's gloved hands pawed at Mars' forearm. Her colorful complexion drained to a ghostly white.

"Answer me!" Mars shouted, and finally, she released the Jovian, though her forearm still hovered in place over the taller woman's windpipe.

Jupiter drew a trembling breath. "No!" She barked hoarsely, and the pressure suddenly returned, Mars pressing against her throat, her eyes feral and untamed.

"Mars!" Jupiter barked. "How could Minako have any time for me-" She drew in what little air she could manage, "When she's with _you_ every moment outside her duties!?"

She'd expended her last bit of breath and voice to try to save herself, yet Mars only dug her forearm against her throat that much harder… until she suddenly released Jupiter entirely.

With a shuddering gasp, Jupiter slid to the cobblestone street, her vision fading in and out and her limbs tingling from lack of oxygen. With each new breath she raggedly drew in, Jupiter watched as Mars strode away determinedly, never once looking back.

* * *

"Ah! Rei-san!"

Rei pulled her gaze from the ground sharply. She had trusted her feet to take her someplace safe, someplace where no one was likely to look for her, someplace where she could be _alone_.

She hadn't expected to end up at the Crown.

"Ah, Motoki-kun…" Her voice betrayed her. Uncertain and wavering, it was a stark contrast to her normal tightly reined-in sense of self control. The automatic doors slid closed behind her and she hurried, attempting to skirt past the karaoke attendant without any further conversation.

"Rei-san!"

The Martian paused in the middle of the hallway and glanced back at Motoki, unable to meet his gaze.

"Have you seen Mako-chan lately?" Motoki asked.

Rei's pale complexion blanched further. She managed a quick shake of her head, and then threw herself through the secret door.

On the other side of that magical threshold, she pressed her back against the solid wall, berating herself for her cowardice. Really, was she that ashamed that she had lost her cool and attacked the very woman Motoki was looking for?

Well, maybe just a little – there was no love lost between herself and Makoto, but it was hardly the primary reason for her anger and confusion.

"Rei-san?"

Rei looked up with wild eyes. Her body tensed and she affected a defensive stance. She'd expected to be alone in this gods-forsaken place, but when she looked down to the lower level, her guarded expression slipped.

"Ami-chan?"

Surrounded by several bottles of Lunarian wine – some empty and some half drained – the Mercurian's blue-tinged eyes were bloodshot and watery. Ami offered Rei a tentative smile and a small wave of her hand.

Finding both a new purpose, and feeling eager for any distraction from her own problems, Rei trotted down the steps and took her seat across the table from Ami. "This is where you've been all day?" She asked, her normally cool voice laced with a hint of concern for her comrade. "Everyone's been worried about you, you know."

Ami's lower lip trembled and she avoided eye contact. "Are you here to chastise me? To tell me to forget about Serenity-chan? To tell me what to do about Makoto-san?"

"No." Rei said quietly. "You're a big girl. I won't tell you how to live your life."

Ami finally lifted her gaze from the white tabletop and she offered Rei a thankful half-smile. "You and I, we're not too dissimilar, are we?"

Rei shook her head. "Although our circumstances are quite different, no, I'm afraid we aren't."

The slightest hiccup interrupted Ami's quiet chuckle and she passed a half-full bottle of wine to Rei. "Will you join me?"

There was a distinct pleading in the shy woman's voice that didn't go unnoticed, and Rei didn't hesitate to take the bottle. Bringing the sharp smelling liquid to her lips, she took a mouthful of the bitter wine.

They sat in companionable silence for an untold amount of time. Martians were known for their tolerance to alcohol, but Rei still paced herself, continuously shocked at the amount of wine the young Mercurian could put away. She was vaguely aware that some hours had passed in companionable, if melancholy silence, but the alcohol helped to negate her guilt that her comrades would be forced to take hers and Ami's guard shifts in their absence.

Ami's head had been resting on the back of her hand against the tabletop for at least an hour now, and Rei was sure the other woman was sleeping restlessly. She didn't feel comfortable leaving Ami alone in such a state, nor did she particularly care to face her own version of reality either. Instead, she brought her bottle back to her lips and nearly choked on the crimson liquid when her supposedly inebriated friend spoke quietly.

"I did her, but she didn't do me. Does that even _count_?"

Rei remained still for a long moment, trying to both decipher Ami's vague words and trying to determine if she had been sleep-speaking after all.

Slowly, Ami raised her head, the imprint of her knuckles etched in sharp relief against the pale skin of her cheek. Not only was she wide awake, she seemed much more lucid than Rei had expected, and she was caught off guard.

"Eh?"

"Between two women," Ami clarified, "do both parties have to achieve penetration to qualify for losing one's virginity?"

Rei remained stock still, once again calling into question Ami's intoxication. "Ami-chan, I don't understand what you're-"

"_Serenity begged me to fuck her!"_ Ami hissed.

Rei stiffened. She paused awkwardly and then hurriedly took another sip from her bottle.

Somewhat more composed, Ami steepled her fingers together and took a deep breath. "It's just my guess, but I think she wanted to lose her virginity so that Endymion wouldn't have to experience the guilt of taking it from her."

Remaining silent, Rei drained the last drops of her wine.

Ami rested her elbows on the tabletop and dropped her forehead to her palms. "I only did it because she asked me to… but she didn't reciprocate."

Finally, Rei sat her bottle down and cleared her throat quietly. "Then yes. To answer your question, you're still a virgin."

Ami looked up from her hands with a neutral expression. Slowly, her lips tugged upwards and she made a sound that fell somewhere in the space between a cry and a squeak. "It wasn't anything like what I expected it to be."

Rei offered the slightest of smiles. "Then that should tell you something."

For a long moment, Ami's mouth hung slack. Her eyes darted from side to side and she picked at the sleeve of her shirt. "What should it tell me, Rei-san?"

Rei's smile was unreadable. "That's something that you have to answer for yourself, Ami-chan."

Ami released that same, strangled sound, and her tentative hold on her reined-in emotions shattered like the thinnest ice. Her head collapsed to her forearms on the table and she gave into several body shaking sobs.

Several moments later, Ami opened her eyes when she felt an unfamiliar strength at her side helping her to rise to her feet, and she looked into Rei's eyes awkwardly. Rei only shrugged and helped her youngest comrade across the floor and onto the couch at the far end of the room. She sat down next to Ami, and stiffened when the other woman was quick to lean into her.

"Please," Ami pleaded, her small hand fisting together the material of Rei's shirt, "don't tell anyone what I told you."

"Of course not." Rei patted Ami on the head awkwardly. She'd only meant to help the distraught woman – tipsy and emotionally drained. She hadn't counted on having to continue to physically support her, and when the Mercurian tipped her head up, her nose brushing Rei's, tears flowing freely down her cheeks and sniffling quietly, the Martian stiffened that much more.

"We're so close right now," Ami's voice was a breathless whisper. "I could just…" Her eyes slid closed, and she leaned in, canting her head just slightly to the side.

Rei placed an abrupt finger to Ami's lips, and Ami opened her eyes in confusion, the worry-lines of hurt and betrayal beginning to etch across her brow.

"Ami-chan," Rei said softly, "don't make the same mistake that Serenity did. I know you're very confused right now, but please understand that I'm not." Rei smiled weakly and patted Ami on the shoulder. "I know exactly what I want, and this is not it."

Ami pulled back slightly. Her lips pulled upwards into a small smile, and she wiped at her eyes with the backs of her hands. She chuckled, her small frame shaking, still caught between sobs and laughs, between dejection and relief. She finally managed to look back into Rei's eyes.

"You know," she said, "Minako-chan is pretty stupid not to see what's right in front of her for what it really is."

Rei snorted at that, one corner of her mouth twitching into a half-smirk: "She's not stupid, Ami-chan, she's just _Venusian_."

To this, the Martian and the Mercurian shared a good laugh, the two women leaning against one another and tiring from the effort; both of them worn from physical and mental exhaustion of days, weeks, _months_ of political duties and social ties.

Eventually, their laughter gave way to a comfortable silence. Nestled against Rei's side, her eyelids slowly dropping, Ami called Rei's name. But when she was met with silence, she realized that the Martian had already fallen asleep. With a small smile, Ami realized that no further words were necessary, and she was more than content to fall asleep at Rei's side.

* * *

In the early hours of the morning, Rei had hurried to her post at the rooftop garden. Though she was certain that the fire would still withhold its secrets, once separated from the comfortable haze of intoxication she'd spent the majority of her night in, she felt the need to return to her duties.

She couldn't be bothered with the effort of transforming, and had settled on lighting her fire in her civilian form – her flame weak and wavering without the magical boost of Mars' strength. But her spiritual prowess as Rei was just as powerful, and she eventually fell into a meditative state sitting in seiza before the small fire.

Some time later, she became aware of another presence on the rooftop – one that was all too familiar in its contradictive and fickle nature, and when she snapped her eyes open and saw Minako's tense form through the dancing tongues of flame, she growled a warning.

"You look like shit." Rei taunted.

Minako stepped forward stiffly, as though she were controlling a teetering anger. "I've been busy," She barked. "No rest for the tired."

Rei arched an eyebrow. "That's no rest for the _weary_. You're running yourself ragged. You'll get sick from exhaustion."

Minako smiled bitterly, and the orange light cast by the fire only accentuated the dark circles under her eyes. "Is that a premonition?"

"Perhaps it is." Rei said flatly. She shut her eyes dismissively to return her focus on her duties.

"Tell me where you were last night, Mars."

Rei's eyes shot open at the venom that laced her commander's hoarse voice. There was a fire Minako's eyes that matched the frustration in her tightly controlled movements.

Forcing her sense of calm, Rei allowed Minako to brood a moment longer. "I wasn't aware I had a prior commitment." She finally replied.

Minako stomped forward, stopping in front of the stone fire pit, and Rei wondered if the barrier of her fire could hope to contain the Venusian if the willful woman decided it wasn't enough to stop her.

"I thought you said you wouldn't deny yourself that which you wanted." Minako spat, and smirked in righteous indignation when Rei's jaw clacked shut. "Now, you'll tell me where you were last night."

Rei acquiesced, though she refused to show submission by releasing eye contact. "I spent the night at Crown with Ami-chan."

Minako's smirk became a snarl. "Drinking away your sorrows with an underage woman?"

"Hardly." Rei spat. "I'd never be so pitiful." She smirked predatorily. "_My_ morals have _never_ been in question, Minako."

The two women glared at each other, the fire roaring between them. An electronic beep rose over the flame's dissonance, and Minako distractedly swatted at the communicator on her wrist. She stiffened and narrowed her eyes.

"I'm late for a meeting with Zoicite." She mumbled.

Rei snorted, her hackles rising. "If you're supposed to be with him, then what was your reason for coming up here in the first place?"

Minako's fingers clenched. Her knuckles whitened. She captured her lower lip between her teeth. In a swift and awkward movement, she skirted around the fire and bent at the waist.

Rei was too shocked to recoil from the forceful kiss, and too slow to respond to it, and before she knew it, Minako had spun and marched away, leaving a very confused Martian in her wake.

* * *

Serenity and Endymion's hands were loosely intertwined and swinging at their sides as they walked through a private garden. Endymion was surely lost – the grounds of the Moon Palace were a sprawling tangle of honeycombed walls and rooms, interspersed with jungle-like gardens, and he got the impression that lost was exactly where Serenity wanted him.

He brightened at a familiar plant, and he pulled Serenity down a path that he was fairly certain that even she might not now to where it lead.

The Princess smiled softly. "This is one of the rose bushes you sent me months ago, isn't it?"

Endymion nodded. His calloused fingers drifted over the wine-red blooms. "Rosae Crimson Conquest. It was always one of my favorites." He squinted and leaned closer. "Looks like it's suffering a case of black spot though."

Serenity waved her hand dismissively. "One of my senshi said the same thing. I'm sure she'll take care of it."

"Oh? Which of your guardians is interested in horticulture?"

Serenity's dark eyes narrowed. "It doesn't matter." She threw her arms around the Prince's neck and pulled herself up to the tips of her toes. "Endymion," she purred, almost whining.

Endymion's arms automatically slipped around Serenity's waist. "Hmm?" He asked, kissing her lips lightly.

"You don't have to worry about my chastity, if that was your concern."

"My concern?" Endymion's brows furrowed as he tried to adjust to the sudden shift in gears. "Serenity, I thought I assured you days ago." He swept his fingers through the dark fall of her bangs. "I'm a man of honor. I want to make you happy. Would you take that away from me?"

"Yes. I would." Serenity said curtly. "Because I won't be happy until you sleep with me." She pushed her body impossibly closer to Endymion's, smiling when she felt his body respond. Her lips ghosted over his. "I want you, Endymion."

Endymion breathed into Serenity's mouth, kissing her even as his name was still on her lips. Serenity threw herself into the kiss, her hands roaming – one cupping his cheek and the other sliding down his chest. Endymion pulled away from her mouth and bowed slightly at the waist to trail his wet lips down her throat, his large hands on her small shoulders, pulling her closer.

"You break my resolve," His voice – raspy with need and hot on the skin of her neck wavered, yet he stilled his hands and calmed his heartbeat. He arrested Serenity's bold hand, trapping her wrist before her fingers could slip underneath the waist of his pants.

She looked up with watery eyes, and in them, the Prince could see those fears he'd thought he'd vanquished that night not long ago.

"You break my resolve," he repeated, tucking an errant lock of hair behind her ear, "but I will not take you in such a place. Don't you want our first time to be special?"

"Special?" Serenity echoed the word slowly. "I didn't know it was supposed to be special."

"Then you don't know what it's like to truly be in love." Endymion cupped her cheek tenderly. "Do you trust me, Serenity?"

"Yes."

"Then we'll wait. And I'll show you what I mean."

* * *

The hour was growing late. Mars' rumbling stomach reminded her that it had been far too long since she'd last eaten. Her duties for the day completed, she headed for the kitchen.

She passed the dining room where the senshi had once shared meals with their Princess. She suspected that some of them still did. Perhaps Endymion and the shitennou joined them at times. Mars' fingers trailed over the surface of the door as she passed towards the kitchen, and just as she was about to enter the two swinging metal doors, another exited.

Venus passed through. She bumped against Mars' shoulder and kept walking. Mars stood glued to the spot, entirely too conscious of the swaggering step the Venusian couldn't seem to hide no matter how tall she drew herself.

"You need to rest." Mars called down the hallway.

Venus paused but didn't turn around. "I give the orders around here, Mars."

The crimson warrior growled. "You're pushing yourself too hard."

Venus finally turned, her balance slightly off, a smile on her lips that didn't reach her drooping eyes. "I know you want me all to yourself, but you'll have to wait until I can free up my schedule."

"Get off your high horse, Minako. I'm just worried about you."

Venus snorted and put her hand over her heart dramatically. "I'm touched, Mars." She sneered, and then turned and continued walking.

Seething, Mars brushed off the insult and turned to enter the kitchen, but she paused before she walked through the threshold. Something drew her gaze back towards Venus' retreating form – no longer moving, but now leaning heavily against a pillar.

"That _fool." _She mumbled, and started running.

Just as the Venusian's strength had failed her, Mars was there to catch her from crashing to the ground. She threw her arms around her commander's front, pulling her up from behind. "I _told_ you!" She hissed.

But Venus was far from hearing her. A dead weight in Mars' arms, Venus had succumbed to her exhaustion. She was weak, and though she was still able to maintain her transformation, Venus needed rest.

Mars heard footsteps approaching down the hall, and she didn't hesitate to swing Minako into her arms. Her commander was only slightly smaller than she was, and never had Mars been more thankful for the surge of power her senshi strength granted her.

It was two of the shitennou – Jadeite and Nephrite - and when they saw Mars carrying the leader of the senshi, both of them faltered. Jadeite was the first to react. Gathering his wits about him, he hurried forward to try to help.

"Stay back!" Mars barked, and she took a step backwards, holding Venus closer to her. "She's fine. She only needs rest. Tell Zoicite he'll be unable to meet with her tonight."

"Uh… understood!" Jadeite said sharply and bowed low, backing away from the fiercely possessive aura of the Martian as she strode past him.

Mars paid neither any heed, and only hurried towards the senshi wing of the Palace. The sharp sounds of her heels weighted by the extra body in her arms was a hollow staccato against the marble floor as she climbed the stairs faster than she ever had before.

She passed the door to Minako's room, realizing detachedly that she'd never even been _in_ the Venusian's quarters. But somehow, she guessed that Minako would feel more comfortable in her room – the place they shared reluctantly or otherwise - and Mars played a delicate juggling game just to wrench the door open with her commander in her arms.

Venus stayed asleep, even while Mars battled the bed sheets, somehow managing to pull them down from the head of the bed in order to slide her body underneath them. She pulled the comforter up to Venus' chin, and in a few moments, watched as the golden glow surged from the other woman. Despite her exhaustion, she must have sensed her surroundings and felt safe enough to detransform.

For a long time, Mars stood guard, watching over Minako. The Venusian's brow was furrowed and her eyes darted from side to side underneath her tightly shut eyelids. There was something about seeing the usually powerful and self-sufficient woman lying helpless in bed, covered in a light sheen of sweat and heavy blankets that utterly frightened Mars. Some part of her consciousness earmarked the image, burned itself into her memory, even if the knowledge wouldn't be useful in this lifetime.

After awhile, her legs had gone numb underneath her, and Mars spurred herself into action, intent on at least being useful. With her communicator, using its texting interface so as not to wake Minako, she contacted Mercury and asked her to take Venus' guard shift. The Mercurian, greatly improved since the understanding that had passed between them, = eagerly accepted. Then, Mars strode into her bathroom and ran a washcloth under warm water before returning to her bedside.

It was with great tenderness that she brushed Minako's caramel highlighted bangs away from her forehead before resting the warm towel there, all the while her thoughts trailing back to the sudden kiss they'd shared on the rooftop garden, the kiss that seemed to tell her that maybe Minako might have been rethinking her self-imposed rules and boundaries that had left them as bitter enemies by day and angered lovers by night.

A reaction to the warmth, Minako's eyes fluttered open, and Mars retracted her hand quickly.

"What? Where?" Minako's words were halting and confused and she tried to lift her head from the pillows.

Mars applied firm pressure to her commander's shoulder and pushed her back down. "You're in my bed. You've collapsed from exhaustion, and you need rest."

Minako became a little more lucid, her eyes clearing as she battled the fog of sleep. "My meeting… I was supposed to have a meeting with-"

"I informed Jadeite that you'd be unable to meet Zoicite tonight. Whatever it is, it can wait."

"My guard duties-"

"Mercury has volunteered."

Each small pebble that Minako threw was met with the solid wall that was Mars, and she realized with no small amount of certainty the lengths of which the Martian had gone through in order to take care of her. She smiled at her subordinate.

"Rei?"

Mars tensed slightly, caught off guard. She hadn't heard Minako use her given name in far too long. "Hn?"

"I hate it when you're right." Minako's small smile became a petulant grin and she chuckled slightly.

Mars could only snort, still far too serious in her role as her commander's caretaker to let herself relax. "Rest now," she grumbled softly, "else you won't have the strength for tomorrow's festivities at the Feriae Marti."

Minako arched an eyebrow. "The festival you obviously want no part of?"

Mars' smile was enigmatic. "I'd have much preferred to have attended under… different circumstances."

Minako frowned, confused and interested. "Rei?"

But the Martian couldn't reply, and nor did she want to. She was grateful for the sudden knock at the door to her suite. "I'll bet that's Zoi-"

Minako's hand slipped between the sheets and she wrapped her fingers weakly around Rei's wrist. "Take it easy on him, Rei."

Her voice was soft and quiet, and Mars' angry scowl faltered. "But,"

"You know Endymion will never have him. Think of how Zoicite feels right now."

Mars' nose scrunched up, but finally, she nodded her head. She thought of Ami, she thought of Makoto, she thought of her own troubles with Minako, and she decided that each of them could be worse off. And for all she'd worried about Minako and Zoicite…

Finally, Mars pinned Minako with eyes that threatened punishment if she were to disobey her command. "I'll go get the door. Do _not_ get up."

Minako yawned, already fighting the pull back to sleep, and watched as her subordinate hurried through the room, to the antechamber and towards the door. Mars escaped her field of vision, and she shut her eyes, listening and imagining the Martian's irritated expressions as she swung the door open.

"What?" Mars barked.

"I had heard that Venus was in need of rest-"

Minako smiled at Zoicite's voice, and despite the twinge of guilt she felt at not being able to attend to her duties, she found a grin tugging at her lips.

"She's resting now." Mars said tersely.

"I only wished to make sure she was alright. I'll take my leave now."

Mars didn't reply, and only closed the door on their concerned guest, and before she'd even returned to the room, Minako had already fallen back into sleep's embrace.

* * *

Preview: Chapter 15 (Interlude)

Someone at the door knocked four times and the abrupt sound jarred each of the women from the depths of the memories of the Moon Kingdom.

"It must be Motoki with the pizza." Minako said. "Makoto, are you going to get it?" Minako leaned forward, waving a hand before Makoto's blank gaze. "Earth to Makoto?"

"Ah!" Makoto looked up and blushed. She looked to the door. The knocking came again. Her mouth moved, but no sounds came out.

"I'll get it." Rei said with a roll of her eyes, and she shot up from the couch and trotted up the steps.


	15. Chapter 15

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 15 (Interlude)  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Present Day: Crown Karaoke

Someone at the door knocked four times and the abrupt sound jarred each of the women from the depths of their memories of the Moon Kingdom.

"It must be Motoki with the pizza." Minako said. "Makoto, are you going to get it?" Minako leaned forward, waving a hand before Makoto's blank gaze. "Earth to Makoto?"

"Ah!" Makoto looked up and blushed. She looked to the door. The knocking came again. Her mouth moved, but her silent voice betrayed her.

"I'll get it," Rei said with a roll of her eyes, and she shot up from the couch and trotted up the steps.

Careful to crack the door open only as widely as was politely possible, Rei offered Motoki a blank expression.

"I, uh, brought the pizza you guys ordered, I figured I could, uh," He angled his body forward as if to enter and Rei shut it on him, trapping his foot between the jamb. As he began to pinwheel backwards, Rei's hand shot out and she grabbed the pizza box from him.

Motoki's ego was bruised more than his toe, and Rei offered him the most sincere of smiles that she could conjure. "Thanks for the pizza," she said, before she shut the door completely.

She leaned against the solid wall behind her and looked down into the room. From the couch, Minako made eye contact, but neither Ami nor Makoto seemed able to lift their gazes from the floor. Rei trotted back down the steps stiffly. She placed the box of pizza on the tabletop and stood by her red chair. Minako shook herself into action and stretched loudly, calling to Ami and Makoto as though they had not just relived and understood the gravity behind their relationships in the past life.

The others rose and slowly joined Rei at the table. It was well past the time for dinner. The room was eerily silent, devoid of even the usual barely detectable bass beats that would leak in from the neighboring karaoke rooms. Midnight had come and gone and the Crown must have already closed to customers.

The women barely picked at the limp slices of pizza. Hungry or not, the memories they'd relived already sat heavily in their stomachs.

Makoto placed her half eaten slice of pizza back in the box. "I just… couldn't… I couldn't face him. Not right now."

Her statement was met by silent nods of understanding. Then, more silence.

Ami peeled a piece of pepperoni off her pizza. "Well… my actions during the Silver Millennium weren't very logical for a Mercurian."

"It wasn't _you_, Ami-chan." Rei's voice was swift and sharp. "It was your past life. We're not the same people now."

Minako opened her mouth, but did not speak.

Makoto was eager to turn the attention away from her previous personal life. "The past life Mars and Venus, did they eventually work things out between each other?"

Still, Minako was unable form an answer, and was surprised that Rei could with little effort.

"You'll have to wait and see." Rei said, almost smugly.

And all Minako could do was wonder; just how much of their memories had returned to Rei? Rei, who had wanted nothing to do with the past life, to include its memories.

The pizza grew cold quickly and sat largely untouched. Eventually, Rei stood and began pacing the far side of the room until finally she stopped, her hands clapping against her thighs. "Aren't we getting a little old for this?" she seemed to ask the room itself, "For secret bases and special powers and past lives?"

The others looked around the room, still frozen in time as a relic of their teenage years. Funny that the candy machines and soda fountain didn't age with them, when all they wanted in the early morning hours was a stiff cup of coffee and some waffles.

"No." Minako said firmly. "I suppose this power never ages, and we'll always be those senshi at heart." She leveled her gaze at Rei. "The senshi we were during the Silver Millennium, and the senshi we were years ago."

Ami closed the lid on the pizza box. "And this place will stay as it is in case that power is ever needed again?"

"Perhaps." Makoto said quietly.

Minako almost smiled. "Like Rei said, maybe we just need to wait and see."

* * *

Author's Note:

Pardon the Doctor Who reference at the start. I couldn't help myself.

Thanks to everyone who's still sticking with this story!

* * *

Preview, Chapter 16: The One I Protect

Minako arched an eyebrow when Zoicite stepped close, though not as close as he normally might have, given their working relationship.

"Call off your barbarian." His words were quiet and laced with an indulgent humor.

Minako glanced behind her. Rei wasn't only keeping a watchful eye on her, but on Zoicite as well. Rei realized Minako had caught her and her gaze darted away quickly.

"She wouldn't even allow me to see how you were recovering last night." Zoicite took a step further away and brushed at his shoulders. "Her possession over you is stifling."

Minako looked straight ahead, a pleased smile teasing her lips as she remembered hearing Mars drive the worried shitennou away from her door. "I think it's adorable."

Zoicite chanced a sideways glance at the leader of the senshi and frowned. "Shouldn't you stop playing games, Venus?"

Minako shrugged. "Mars can handle it. She's tough."

"Yes. She is." Zoicite swept his silver bangs behind an ear. "You, however, are not."

"What?" Minako hissed.

Zoicite only smiled knowingly. "If you think otherwise, the only one you're fooling is yourself."


	16. Chapter 16

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 16: The One I Protect  
By: trusuprise

"Silly," Endymion clasped his hands around Serenity's as she looped the soft edges of a scarf around his neck. "It's a bit too warm for a scarf right now," he said.

Serenity pouted. Her fingers toyed with the tasseled edges of the ivory cloth. Endymion chuckled lightly and she smiled when he lifted her chin with his finger.

"But even if I can't wear it on our outing today, I will surely treasure it."

* * *

When she felt a familiar strong hand on her shoulder, Ami jumped, a blush spreading across her cheeks at being caught spying on her Princess from a distance. Makoto offered her a handsome grin. Ami found the gesture to be more than a small consolation for seeing Endymion sporting the scarf she herself had modeled for Serenity not long ago.

"You're handling this much better than I would have expected." Blunt and to the point, Makoto smiled at her friend.

The corners of Ami's mouth twitched for a moment before she returned an honest smile. "It hurts. But I think I'm getting over her, Makoto-san."

The Jovian's smile widened and she had to make a conscious effort not to grin like a fool. She slapped Ami on the back. She wasn't sure what had caused Ami's turnaround; she had been devastated the day before, when Makoto had carried the distraught woman back to her room after her semi-coupling with Serenity, but Makoto wasn't going to question her sudden turn around into the recovering unrequited lover she was now.

"Let's get out of here." Makoto said brightly. "We're supposed to meet in front of the palace for the Feriae Marti, and it looks like those two might be making a detour back to his room."

Ami nodded, and she led the way.

* * *

On the stairs that led to the main entrance of the Moon Palace, the senshi and the shitennou – all of them in civilian personas and plain clothes – stood in an awkward silence as they waited for their charges.

Minako hung close to Rei. It had taken every trick in the book for Rei to wake the Venusian in time to head out for the Martian festival. Mostly, it had been due to Minako's sleepiness. Even though the woman had slept a solid ten hours, her exhausted body had wanted for more rest after being pushed so far for her senshi duties. But it wasn't rest that Minako had particularly wanted to spend her time on, and that morning, she had battled her drowsiness with trying to seduce Rei – the Martian trying to help her commander meet her timeline for their excursion; understandably stiff and confused by Minako's lack of antagonism and need for closeness, especially at such a time of day.

It had confused Minako as well. She had been quick to blame her contradictive actions on her weakness the night before, even if it didn't explain her continued need to linger close to Rei when she had already decided to keep her distance.

Endymion and Serenity finally exited the Palace. Both had done an excellent job at concealing their identities. The plain clothes they adopted matched those of their guardians, and together, the lot of them could easily pass as a group of Lunarians out to enjoy a festival. Serenity had even tied her hair into two twin buns on either side of her head, the extra length forming two long tails.

The decision to go incognito had been a source of contention for both parties of guardians. In the end, Venus had acquiesced to Serenity's desire to spend the day as normal citizens only because she was confident in her soldiers' ability to react quickly and effectively in either of their forms, and because of the added security provided by the four shitennou.

Small talk died on the steps, save Serenity's incessant chatter over her excitement; she was eager to be on the way to the Feriae Marti. Their guardians set up a perimeter guard, fanning out around Endymion and Serenity; the senshi on one side of them and the shitennou on the other. Minako and Zoicite took the lead, protecting their charges from the front, and as they walked, Minako could feel Rei's watchful gaze alternating from the Princess, to her surroundings, to herself frequently.

She arched an eyebrow when Zoicite stepped close, though not as close as he normally might have, given their working relationship.

"Call off your barbarian." His words were quiet and laced with an indulgent humor.

Minako glanced behind her. Rei wasn't only keeping a watchful eye on her, but on Zoicite as well. Rei realized Minako had caught her and her gaze darted away quickly.

"She wouldn't even allow me to see how you were recovering last night." Zoicite took a step further away and brushed at his shoulders. "Her possession over you is stifling."

Minako looked straight ahead, a pleased smile teasing her lips as she remembered hearing Mars drive the worried shitennou away from her door. "I think it's adorable."

Zoicite chanced a sideways glance at the leader of the senshi and frowned. "Shouldn't you stop playing games, Venus?"

Minako shrugged. "Mars can handle it. She's tough."

"Yes. She is." Zoicite swept his silver bangs behind an ear. "You, however, are not."

"What?" Minako hissed.

Zoicite only smiled knowingly. "If you think otherwise, the only one you're fooling is yourself."

* * *

Rei secured a place for the ten of them at a prime location along the parade route that wound through the Martian Tent City. The streets were narrow and crowded, but she had no problem scattering the other interstellar refugees and Lunarians. Even her own, willful people bent to her silent and serious will.

The senshi and the shitennou maintained a loose, living shield around their charges as the din of the crowd quieted in the slightest.

"The parade is about to start." Rei said quietly.

The creaking of leather and clanking of metal on metal preceded the procession before the parade turned the corner into main view. There was a steady beat of several drums in four-by-four time, overlaid by a quicker, hollow percussion instrument that kept a faster pace.

"They are Salii; Martian priests of a sect similar to the one I served with." Rei offered this little bit of information, and then the priests exploded around the corner.

Twelve tall, rugged men leaped to great heights. Their armor - polished bronze breastplates and pleated bronze skirts - caught the golden-blue glint of the light cast by the Sun and the Earth above. The tunics underneath their armor were a deep shade of royal violet and their long, raven hair was gathered into low tails, the length streaming behind them as they exhibited their martial prowess through tightly controlled displays of kata and great leaps that seemed to suspend them in the air for longer than seemed natural.

"Their leaping promotes fertility in both the people and the land." Rei explained distantly, her voice barely audible over the commotion of the parade and the crowd in attendance. Her dark eyes followed the priests' movements, her toes twitching in her sandals as though she knew the kata well and longed to join in.

As if to agree with their acolyte's observation, the Salii gave a great, guttural yell that devolved into a frantic chant and they began to clash their spears against shields strapped to their left arms. The wail of a flute somehow rose over the din, echoed by the rough cries of the priests. Some of the Martians along the parade route joined in, their voices echoing their priests, their fists pumping in the air.

Rei fisted her hands tightly at her sides. "The clashing of their weapons drives away evil spirits," she said. "Although the words of their prayer have long been forgotten to the Martian tongue, it is a petition to our deity for the strength to continue to nurture and protect that which Martians hold dearest to them."

Minako turned to Rei then. Despite the elaborate display and sensory overload of the parade, she was more interested in her subordinate. She rested her hand on Rei's stiff shoulder, but Rei would not acknowledge her. She might have been offended by the dismissal, but then Minako noticed the pace of the Salii slow, and their eyes turned to one woman.

Rei.

Minako's hand slid from Rei's shoulder as the priests' unsynchronized movements slowly coalesced, became symmetrical, their heads turned towards their young acolyte, bowed slightly in deference to her as they danced past.

And then, as the last of them moved past Rei, their pace picked up again, their voices rose in volume, and the flute and the drums, which Minako hadn't even realized had quieted, tripled in intensity.

"Rei…" Minako whispered.

The Martian turned. She glanced casually at her chronometer before focusing her unreadable gaze on Serenity and Endymion.

"The horse races should begin soon." She said gruffly.

* * *

Between the Jovian's size and the Martian's strong will, Rei and Makoto formed a unified front, their differences once again forgotten as they drove openings in the crowds to steer their party to the spaceport closest to the Martian Tent City.

Of all the spaceports that surrounded the Moon Palace, only two had not been assimilated as part of a tent city; left open on the off chance that people from those few planets that still maintained some semblance of life support might still leave their dying worlds to seek refuge on the Moon.

For the occasion of Feriae Marti, one of the two had been designated as a rack track. Normally such a frivolous waste of space would not have been permitted. In fact, animals that were not raised for the sole purpose of food had been banned from the Moon.

The horses used for this race, however, had been a gift from Earth. The Terrans had been surprised that the Lunarian government had asked to return the gift they had offered after the completion of a religious festival, but as the Prince and the shitennou saw the twelve steeds their delegation had sent poised on the start line – a launch pad designed for a medium sized space craft – they could understand the short term benefit that these animals would bring the refugees - both in morale and in revenue.

Thousands of people stood in the dusty, brown grass that surrounded the concrete spaceport. Most held gambling tickets – mostly Mercurians and Martians. Some were there for the wild rush of the animals themselves – primarily the Jovians. And the Venusians and the Lunarians were there for the social aspect of the games they played – women dressed in brightly colored clothes stood under umbrellas designed more for form than function.

The high pitched whistle of a flute brought a slow hush over the thousands in attendance. The Martian jockeys; a mismatched crew of men and women wearing colors similar to their priests; violets, blacks and scarlets, clambered onto their horses. They wore no helmets; their hair was loose past their shoulders and they sat atop their steeds bareback, their bodies poised over the necks of their horses, fingers threaded through their manes and grasping simple reins made of thin, braided rope.

A second flute sounded shrilly, and all at once, the horses took off and the crowd erupted in a cacophony of shouts, cheers and curses. The senshi and the shitennou tightened their perimeter around their charges as the crowd surged in excitement.

The horses ran in a straight line from point A to point B; a mixed group of brown, black, flaxen, and white steeds. One gained, another fell back several places. A horse from the back pulled towards the front and right before the finish line, the one that held second place pulled in front to claim the lead.

There was a perceptible electricity about the crowd. Some had won bets, many had lost. Officials on the concrete pad rushed an impromptu sash to the winning horse and rider; an evergreen vine that boasted bright, crimson flowers, no doubt crafted by the Jovian horticulturists.

Endymion noted Rei's despondence and he placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. "We should have sent you our racing stock. These horses were meant for breeding."

Rei offered the Prince a rare grin. "They wouldn't have been faster than Martian steeds anyway."

It was both a joke and an insult, one that Endymion handled gracefully.

Minako turned to her charges then, eager to get both the Prince and the Princess away from such a crowded area. She was still uncomfortable with Queen Serenity's insistence to indulge Serenity's whims; it was one thing to allow the Princess to walk amongst the general population while guarded and disguised, but the thought of allowing Serenity to spend the night in a commoners' hotel - even if it was an upscale establishment – did not sit well with her.

But the decision had been stripped from her.

She smiled at the Serenity. "Shall we retire to our accommodations?"

* * *

The ten of them stepped into the hotel lobby. It could have been laughable, but the old and worn building of the Martian embassy was one of the few luxurious hotels left outside the accommodations of the Moon Palace itself.

Despite the economic troubles of the Lunarians, and to a much greater extent, the refugees of the other planets, several groups of Lunarian nobles and other wealthy off-worlders brought out by the lure of the festival and a few days separation from their own cramped quarters, milled about the dark, high ceilinged lobby. Minako ushered her party to a casual gathering of chairs and sofas near a wide bank of windows, and she was only content when her warriors and the shitennou took up a loose guard around Endymion and Serenity once again.

She then proceeded to the receptionist across the way – a woman perhaps a few years older than herself with a dark mane longer than Rei's in her Mars form. She examined the woman's nameplate: Honookawa Hanako, and she wondered with some amusement at the Martian propensity for names that had to do with fire. Hanako and Rei shared the same hauntingly dark eyes and Minako stumbled slightly at the familiar intensity she found there.

"Party of ten. Reserved by Aino Minako." Minako's voice sounded distant to her own ears.

Hanako remained motionless and the Venusian couldn't tell if she was being mocked or admired, and given what she knew about Rei, she realized bemusedly that such antagonistic indifference was definitely a trait common to Martians. After a long and awkward silence, Minako turned back towards her party.

"Rei!" She hissed.

The Martian had strategically placed herself halfway between the Princess and her commander, yet she still sighed and rolled her eyes as she approached. Ignoring Minako, she addressed her kinsman in Martian.

Through the rough and guttural tongue, Minako could hear the softer, smooth language of her cover name of Aino Minako, and she wondered if it was only inflection, or if Rei's voice had deliberately softened when she spoke her name.

Minako was surprised when the receptionist remained just as distant., but then, Hanako asked Rei a swift and jarring question that Rei responded to quickly and sharply.

Hanako's gaze darted between Rei and Minako for some time, and then she repeated Rei's curt answer with an arched eyebrow, as if in question.

A problem, Minako wondered? Rei barked back what seemed like same answer and surprisingly, Hanako smiled suggestively. She turned to Minako, who realized stiffly that the receptionist was sizing her up.

Hanako once again addressed her kinsman, this time speaking in passable Lunarian. "You do not wish to share a room with your _Sai Vikhe_, warrior?"

"No, clerk." Rei growled back. "We would like separate rooms."

Rei turned to Minako then, her dark gaze cold on the confused Venusian, who was now acutely aware that she had been their topic of conversation and that that she had been called a term foreign to her. A cold ache gnawed at Minako's stomach and she puzzled over it. Rei's response was what she herself would have insisted upon to keep up appearances. So why did it hurt so badly to hear the same words come from Rei's mouth?

The receptionist shrugged then, reverting back to her stony indifference, and slid a handful of keys to Rei, who snatched them up and quickly stalked back to their party, leaving Minako to tag along as she could.

* * *

Keys had been distributed. Perimeter guards had been established. One senshi and one shitennou would patrol the embassy grounds at all times. Despite the room that Kunzite had been given, he had set up guard outside the suite that Endymion and Serenity shared. Their plans had been well thought out and strictly executed, and as the festival outside the embassy walls died down and the hotel itself quieted, Minako was nonetheless unable to relax.

She tried Rei's room first, though she was unsurprised to find it empty. The Venusian stood in the plain limestone hallway for some time until she finally chose a direction. Experience had proven to her that any path would lead her back to Rei sooner or later.

Their rooms were on the fourth and top floor of the building and she trotted down the crumbling stone steps to ground level. Giving the lobby and its receptionist a wide berth, Minako strode through a common area where darkly colored tapestries depicting the sandy, red terrain of the arid Martian plains adorned the cracked and crumbling walls. The tapestries reminded her of the Temple of the Flame, where she had first found Rei – the acolyte who wasn't really an acolyte – and had convinced her to travel back to the Moon with her. It reminded Minako of those first weeks they shared together; their growing attraction, that magnetic pull, those short few days where she had allowed herself to feel freely for the other woman.

There was that gnawing in her stomach again, and she lengthened her strides to put more distance from those tapestries that made her think forbidden thoughts. That magnetic pull was still there between Rei and herself – she couldn't deny that any more than she could deny the destructive way in which she nurtured it.

In her haste, she nearly crashed through the door that led out the back of the embassy and she took a deep breath that wasn't entirely refreshing; the air here was thin and tainted with too many people that sought refuge under the overtaxed geo dome, but she made do with what few comforts the small outdoor veranda offered.

The Earth was low on the horizon; big and blue and heavy over the jagged outline and irregular edges of the city rooftops. To the opposite horizon, the Moon Palace's imposing profile was a black, pointy structure that stood against the circle of the Sun. Minako numbly sat at the courtyard's center, resting on a low bench that encircled a small fountain filled with rocks smoothed by a river that was likely long dead on any one of the dying planets that any one of the senshi might have once called home.

Minako shut her eyes and allowed the bubbling waters to attempt to soothe her. Slowly, she found her center, and then resumed the task she had originally set out on. She knew that Rei had advanced skills in sensing the presence of others, but even she had grown accustomed to knowing when the Martian was near.

"I know you're there, Rei."

There was a moment of silence – the Venusian could have been talking to herself, but finally, Rei stepped away from a vine covered trellis at the other end of the courtyard. Stepping away from the protective cover of the overhang that might have hidden her, she addressed her leader coolly.

"What do you want? I was here first."

"I was just going to remind you that you don't have to guard. Mercury has patrol duty."

Rei snorted, her lips pulled into a tight frown, her arms crossed over her chest. She could easily read Minako's feint, yet she continued to creep towards her commander. Cautiously, she took a seat on the low wall that surrounded the fountain; far enough away from Minako to negate the closeness they shared, yet close enough to touch if the opportunity arose.

The two women shared a companionable silence for some time; the comforting babble of the fountain only slightly louder than the normal backdrop of the stifled city; an occasional shout, a generator lurching to life, the cry of a baby.

"Tell me what that woman meant when she called me that name."

Minako's words came out as a worried rush and Rei had to scramble to catch up. "Who called you what name?"

"Hanako. That receptionist. She called me your… Sai Vikhe."

Rei sucked in a breath and didn't release it for a long time.

"Rei," Minako demanded, "answer the question."

"It means 'the one I protect'. It is the highest endearment a Martian can offer another."

Minako's caramel eyes became unfocused. "Sai Sushuri…"

"What?" Rei asked. Her commander's voice had been quiet, the word she uttered familiar, yet foreign.

"Nothing." Minako barked, ignoring the similarities of the two terms that so obviously meant something similar. "How did she come to that conclusion?"

"All Martians have a heightened sense of spirituality. She could read it in my aura." She did not feel the need to call to attention how much her obvious posture was equally telling; apparently to everyone other Minako herself.

"All of you can sense auras? Is that why the Salii regarded you the way they did during the parade? Why that Priestess deferred to you back in the Temple when I took you away from Mars?"

"Yes." Rei remained distant. She had yet to meet Minako's gaze. "Even though I remained an acolyte, they sensed the power in my aura."

What went unsaid, but which was fully understood was that Rei was not denying the depths of her emotions, even if she wasn't acknowledging them. Minako thought about addressing it, but pulled back at the last moment. It would do no good to acknowledge that they felt the same way for each other when she'd already made the decision to keep her distance, given her duty as leader.

Instead, Minako chuckled lightly. She felt Rei bristle, even given the distance that separated them. "You know," she said leadingly, "for the highest endearment you can offer, that's not a very romantic statement."

Rei snorted under her breath. "It is. When you consider that a Martian will protect only the one most important to them."

Minako snapped a piercing gaze at her subordinate. Her voice carried a sharp edge. "The Princess should be the one most important to you."

"She should be," Rei said flatly, finally meeting Minako's gaze. "But she isn't."

The sounds of the city faded away then, even the gentle babbling of the fountain, all these noises muted by the intensity of the spark that passed between Rei and Minako; the blood that rushed through their ears, carried by nearly frantic heartbeats, both women all too aware of the inevitable outcome of this conversation.

But the time for words was over – the limit for spoken language had been not only reached, but also exceeded. Rei reached across the measured distance, her fingers digging into Minako's hip, roughly pulling the other woman closer. She had been expecting the same amount of barely controlled passion that bordered on anger; that distinctive love-hate she'd grown so accustomed to since the Venusian had insisted on it, but when Minako reached to her slowly, gently, Rei was caught completely off guard.

Minako's fingers were feather-light as they cupped Rei's face. Her lips didn't crash bruisingly against Rei's, but only kissed them softly, longingly. There was no struggle for dominance, no hidden anger, and Rei faltered without that expected intensity.

When Rei remained still, Minako's teeth tugged at her bottom lip. She canted her head, searching for a response from the Martian.

Like the sudden unraveling of a thread, Rei released her hold on her anger and confusion. Slowly, she returned that gentle touch. Her fingers threaded through Minako's caramel highlighted hair, and she released the biting pressure on Minako's hip to caress the small of the Venusian's back.

As they re-learned the outlines of each other's bodies, they exchanged soft breaths and gentle gasps – so different from the pained exclamations and stubborn grunts stifled during rushed nights of power plays, and it wasn't long before they stumbled back up the stairs to the fourth floor. When they fell into a room that could have been either Rei's or Minako's, they still played for dominance, still exhausted themselves long into the night…

But this time, they did it in the spirit of the one they shared when they first met.

* * *

On the day of the Terrans' departure, Serenity had cried so hard that she'd been forced to say goodbye to the Prince within the privacy of her quarters. That solution had proved to be a double-edged sword, and Endymion had needed to be nearly pried apart from Serenity. He had been reluctant to leave, but with his princely duties planted firmly in his mind, he promised the Princess that they would meet again just as soon as possible, and that he wouldn't go a moment without thinking about her. Serenity had been fractionally appeased, and when she had released Endymion, he was quickly rushed out the door.

With the majority of the Terrans preparing to return to Earth, save a small group of peacekeepers that were staying behind for continued diplomatic reasons, Venus had decided to leave Mars behind while she and the other senshi saw the Terrans off. By leaving Mars behind, the Martian could serve not only as a guard to the Princess in her fragile state, but she could keep her spiritual senses honed on where they were needed most.

Mars was tense and uncomfortable with her assignment. Emotions; both in others and herself, were not her strong point, and she stood stiffly in Serenity's antechamber while the young woman cried herself hoarse in the next room. Mars shifted to her right foot just slightly to make a visual through the barely open door. Lying face down on her expansive bed and crying into her pillow, she wondered if Serenity would exhaust her oxygen supply and simply fall unconscious.

_Anything_ was preferable to the insistent wailing that kept Mars on edge.

She stepped back, leaning her weight against the wall casually, and tried to seek peace in meditation. Even the irritating silence of the monsters, who had not appeared for days on end, would be preferable to those hitching sobs. Her eyelids sank to a half-lowered state and with some trouble, she found her center and fell into a pattern of slow, deep breaths.

She stretched her consciousness, her spiritual ear listening for the tell tale signs of the dark energy she associated with the monsters. As she expected, it was quiet, though not quite silent. There was a general sense of sorrow that hung over the Moon Palace and the surrounding cities, but she couldn't quite pinpoint its source, for it seemed to come from everywhere at once.

Mars returned from her shallow meditation, slightly groggy but no less on edge. Something had pulled her back; something her consciousness had thought was important. She listened, and she heard the sorrowful notes of harp strings coming from Serenity's room. She wondered what had possessed the Princess, previously so depressed, to get up and play an instrument of all things.

Mars pushed away from the wall and took an urgent step towards Serenity's room. She got halfway there and froze. Her senses were on full alarm, shaking her to her very core.

'_The monsters. They're here… so many of them!_'

Torn between two equally important duties, Mars turned, her raven hair streaming behind her, and she ran from Serenity's bedroom. She sprinted through the antechamber, and she crashed through the double doors, startling the guards on the other side. She barked orders at them to protect the Princess in her stead.

She ran down the palace hallways, the heels of her pumps and her ragged breaths so loud in her ears. Adrenaline rushed through her, knowing that she was going into battle alone, that her comrades were tens of miles away.

And as she ran, she was too distracted to notice that the hair on the back of her neck had ceased to lay down flat since she'd left the presence of her Princess.

* * *

Author's Notes:

This is probably one of my favorite chapters of this entire story. I hope everyone enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

While it's neither here nor there, it's interesting to note, that while incorporating the Sai Sushuri/Sai Vikhe into terms of endearment for this story, that carnal lust is actually a Vikhelic tendency. Go figure. The terms I've used, as well as the descriptions of the Martian festival, are borrowed from Greek/Roman mythologies and the Aristasian belief systems.

* * *

Preview, Chapter 17: Higher Priority

"Mars contacted us when she initially intercepted the threat."

Venus' fists tightened threateningly. "If she was in danger, why didn't she contact me first? As her leader?" She added the last sentiment belatedly.

When Artemis responded, his voice was quiet and strained, as though he was trying to talk a jumper off a rooftop. "She knew you were busy with sending off the Terrans. She seems very clear on your role as her commander." He paused. "Isn't that what you wanted, Venus?"

The leader of the senshi blanched, her face as white as a sheet. _'What have I done?'_

"Venus?" Artemis asked again.

"No." The Venusian said, her voice teetering between a sob and a bark. "No. That's _not_ what I wanted." She fell into silence for a long moment. The rover hit a particularly jarring bump as they edged up the rise of the dried out Sea of Serenity. Jupiter and Mercury exchanged knowing glances.

"Artemis?" Venus finally asked, much more angry at herself than at the cat.

"Minako?"

"For your sake, you'd better hope she's holding her own against those monsters."

The feline advisor sputtered. Venus cut the transmission. Her hand fell limply to the seat at her side. She caught Jupiter's glance from the rear view mirror.

"Floor it!" She snapped.


	17. Chapter 17

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 17: Higher Priority  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

The Terran spacecraft – the antiquated machine that Mars had once referred to as a trashcan - had been decommissioned. As a gift of goodwill between their kingdoms, Queen Serenity had offered the Earthlings several shuttles in the hopes that the Terrans could return to the Moon at their leisure. As the shuttles propelled through what little atmosphere still remained outside the protection of the geo dome, Venus found herself hoping that the Earthlings wouldn't want to return too soon.

She could sense the relief that both Jupiter and Mercury, flanking either side of her, silently displayed. Although a group of a half-dozen diplomats, left in charge of Kuroki Beryl, lingered in the Moon Palace for continued diplomatic relations, Venus felt that she could finally relax slightly. With the departure of the Terran royalty, the senshi's duties had been halved. Perhaps now she could find time to-

An electronic beep set Venus on edge. She raised her communicator to her mouth. "What is it, Mars?"

There was a great noise on the other end of the transmission, an angry roar.

_Flames._

There was a loud crashing sound next, a distant scream, a grunt, and another rush of flame that Venus recognized immediately as the release of one of her crimson warrior's attacks.

"Monsters." Mars finally barked, her breath a gasping wheeze. "Too many of them. Come quickly!"

Every muscle in Venus' body tensed. "Mars!" She shouted. _"Mars!"_

The transmission had been cut off, either purposely or accidentally. Neither option reassured Venus as she tried to hail her subordinate again; Mars would not or could not answer. She looked back to Jupiter, then to Mercury, their mouths slack, their eyes wide like her own.

Venus turned. She took off, and she sprinted like she never had in her life.

"Venus!" Mercury shouted, though she knew her commander was beyond listening to reason. "At least take the rover!"

Jupiter snatched Mercury's wrist and ran. It was all Mercury could do to keep her feet underneath her as Jupiter pulled her to the nearest rover.

"Get out!" Jupiter barked to the driver, and ended up physically ripping the man out of his seat when he didn't move fast enough for her liking. She jumped into the driver's seat and turned the engine. Mercury was already strapped into the passenger seat next to her, and she slammed the large vehicle into first gear and floored the gas pedal.

They caught up to Venus in just a moment. She was breathing raggedly, trying to shout into her communicator and run at the same time.

"Get in!" Jupiter barked to her commander.

Venus didn't miss a beat. She threw herself into the back and kept shouting towards her wrist.

"Listen to me, Artemis, there's no time!" Venus ducked her head to look out through the windshield and her eyes darted to the jagged edge of the city that surrounded the Moon Palace in the distance, desperately searching for signs of the battle. "There's a monster attack in the Jovian Tent City! You need to send Mars backup - we'll never get there in time!"

"We've already sent a team in ten minutes ago." Artemis' voice was tense and barely audible over the ruckus of the tactician's control room.

"But how-"

"Mars contacted us when she initially intercepted the threat."

Venus' fists tightened threateningly. "If she was in danger, why didn't she contact me first? As her leader?" She added the last sentiment belatedly.

When Artemis responded, his voice was quiet and strained, as though he was trying to talk a jumper off a rooftop. "She knew you were busy with sending off the Terrans. She seems very clear on your role as her commander." He paused. "Isn't that what you wanted, Venus?"

The leader of the senshi blanched, her face as white as a sheet. _'What have I done?'_

"Venus?" Artemis asked again.

"No." The Venusian said, her voice teetering between a sob and a bark. "No. That's _not_ what I wanted." She fell into silence for a long moment. The rover hit a particularly jarring bump as they edged up the rise of the dried out Sea of Serenity. Jupiter and Mercury exchanged knowing glances.

"Artemis?" Venus finally asked, much angrier at herself than at the cat.

"Yes, Minako?"

"For your sake, you'd better hope she's holding her own against those monsters."

The feline advisor sputtered. Venus cut the transmission. Her hand fell limply to the seat at her side. She caught Jupiter's glance from the rear view mirror.

"Floor it!" She snapped.

* * *

They'd been forced to abandon the rover at the access road that looped around the Moon Palace; the streets that snaked through the tent cities were far too narrow and populated to drive any faster than the senshi could run.

Venus leapt from one rooftop to another, heedless of her subordinates who struggled to keep pace. With each upward and outward leap that helped her to span the buildings, she scanned for the signs that would bring her closer to the battle. The towering, black plumes of smoke were telling enough, but her next leap showed her the battle itself. What she saw brought her to a skidding halt, pebbles from the rooftop lodging in the sole of her sandals and sticking there unnoticed.

Mercury and Jupiter caught up, both women choking on their breaths. Jupiter moaned as she surveyed the battlefield below. "There's so _many_."

Venus' eyes darted across the war zone that had once been the Jovian main square, looking for only one figure amongst the fleeing citizens and the monsters. Jupiter had been right; there had to be at least a hundred of the ghoulish creatures roaming the streets below. Several dozen bodies lay strewn on the ground, limp and lifeless; civilian casualties left in a telltale progression of the path the battle had taken through the refugee camp.

The senshi turned wild eyes at the rapid fire shooting of automatic weapons. A force of two dozen Lunarian guards that the tacticians had sent was being driven back by monsters in twice their number. Dressed in protective riot gear, even with their guns, they were no match for the ghost-like creatures. Even though they were able to fell some of their numbers, the monsters marched forward, grabbing the palace guards and sucking the very life out of them, dropping their dried husks to the cobblestone streets.

"Where's Mars." Jupiter's voice was hoarse, her tone flat as though she might not want to know.

Venus tried to find her subordinate in the melee below her to no avail. But then, the crimson warrior's deadly flames preceded her, eliminating a handful of the monsters that were systematically picking off the Lunarian guards.

"Venus," Mercury's voice was quiet but insistent, "they need us down there."

Something inside the Venusian snapped like a brittle twig, and she threw herself from the rooftop. Once she hit the ground, sinking low to her haunches to absorb the impact, she made a beeline that made her intent clear. Jupiter and Mercury realized it, even if she didn't, and their long range attacks kept their commander safe from approaching monsters as she ran towards the flames that heralded the Martian.

"Mars!"

* * *

The crimson warrior; sooty and bloodied, had driven the Lunarians away from the line of fire she'd spent to protect them. Her flames roared around her; and surrounded by fire and the walls of buildings, she'd nearly trapped herself in. Though she was well aware of the danger, she knew all too well that the heat of her flames was melting the mortar that held the limestone buildings around her together.

From the corner of her eye, she saw five monsters convening around three Jovian women, one holding a young child close to her chest.

"Run!" Mars shouted, and she unleashed another wave of fire. The ghouls were incinerated; the fire consumed their black cloaks and stark, white faces. Two of the three civilians escaped, but the other fell and was engulfed in the fire that could have saved her. Mars had no time for guilt or regret.

The buildings around her quivered and trembled. There was a haunted look in her wide, dark eyes. She turned, scrambling, though she knew her efforts were futile. When the building walls slid away from their main structures, tumbling down on her, it was then that she saw Venus running at her.

* * *

"_Mars!"_

Venus watched the building collapse – watched the walls slide away from their metal reinforcements, watched the stone and brick and beams eat Mars alive, knocking her down like a rag doll and burying her under several feet of debris.

"_Mars!"_

Venus dove towards the rubble, completely unaware when Jupiter's bolts of electricity took out a trio of monsters that had charged her while she was distracted. Venus disappeared, squeezing her body into a rent in the fallout; a fortuitous opening she only hoped might have saved Rei's life. She slid on her stomach across a flat plane of stone. She squinted in an attempt to see through the thick veil of dust, listening for sounds other than the continued gunfire and elemental explosions occurring only a few feet above her.

"_Mars!"_

"…Minako?"

Even when it sounded confused and disorientated, Venus knew her subordinate's voice, but the weak tone did little to comfort the golden warrior. "Keep talking, Mars. Keep talking and I'll find you." Venus grunted as she used the tips of her fingers to pull her body through a narrow opening.

"Can't… talk," there was a long pause. "Hurts." Mars hissed.

"Mars," Venus said in the strongest voice she could muster, "Mars, if you have any power left, I need you to summon a flame. Just a tiny one. So I can find you."

There was no response as she continued to crawl downwards through the rough openings, guided only by tiny shafts of dusty, smoky sunlight. Venus choked on a sob. "I know you can do this, Mars. Just a tiny flame, like the ones you'd summon to light your fires up on the rooftop garden."

"Our… place."

"Mars?" Though she couldn't see her, the Martian's voice had grown louder and Venus knew she was getting closer. She pushed off against the rough stone beneath her thighs, tearing flesh and drawing blood as she scrambled as quickly as she could.

"Our place." Mars repeated quietly. Finally, the tiniest flame lit the darkness - a weak red light. "I've… missed you… up there."

Venus bit her tongue. "Stop talking, Mars. I can see you now. Stop talking." It was too much; to hear Mars' words, to see her body – trapped under a slab of stone, her arm bent at an unnatural angle, her body covered in blood and caked with soot and dirt.

Mars' eyes opened slowly. The heatless flame that flickered in her good hand cast a crimson light in her dark eyes. She watched Venus crawl closer.

"Minako-"

"I said stop talking." Venus hissed. In this space, she could almost kneel, and she evaluated her subordinate's injuries. Fighting a wave of nausea at the dire state of Mars' condition, she swallowed bile and a lump in her throat simultaneously. She rested a gloved hand on the sticky blackness of Mars' forearm, unsure if she was touching blood, grime, or something else. "We have to get you out of here." She managed.

Mars squinted her eyes shut. "Can't." She inhaled a watery breath. "Ribs. Broken." The flame in her palm wavered.

"Mars!" Venus shouted. "Stay with me!"

The flame bent to an invisible wind and the crimson warrior's brow furrowed. The flame righted itself, but the rubble around them shifted. Venus lurched and ducked, throwing her body over Mars in an attempt to shield them both of them from falling debris.

"Run." The Martian said weakly.

"Mars?"

"Not… safe. Run!"

"Rei?"

Mars' flame flickered, bent wildly, and then blinked out of existence.

"_Rei!"_

The rubble shifted and fell in on them, and Venus screamed.

* * *

"Venus!"

"Minako-san!"

Both Jupiter and Mercury paused mid attack, though they were unable to watch as the precarious pile of rubble caved in on itself. They were forced to turn back to their enemies, killing them off in a panicked rush. When they could safely turn back to look, both women gasped.

"Venus?" They called simultaneously.

When the dust of the cave-in cleared, Venus could be seen standing atop of the rubble. Tall and watchful, she was surrounded by a brilliant glow as if she'd only just transformed. And in her arms, Rei's body hung limply.

Of the few monsters that remained, several stalked the remaining Lunarian guards, and these Venus slaughtered mercilessly from her perch. Though she should have needed both arms to support Mars' weight, her subordinate's body was held one handedly, and in her other hand, the Venus dagger glowed brightly – the very weapon she'd forsaken. And it was more powerful than it ever had been; the creatures fell to the weapon's beam attack with little protest.

The threat eliminated, the gold and crimson dagger faded into nothingness, and her free hand went back to supporting Mars as she unerringly descended the dangerous pile of debris.

Both Jupiter and Mercury rushed to Venus' side, and when their leader looked to them, it was as if all that strength that surpassed even the boundaries of her senshi abilities had drained from her body. She collapsed to her knees, holding Mars' unresponsive body to her chest tightly.

"Rei," she said hauntedly, "She's…."

Mercury sank to her knees next to her commander. She pressed two fingers to Mars' bloody wrist and she shut her eyes in concentration. After a moment, Mercury blanched white. Quickly, she stood and turned. Jumping into the air, she waved her hands at damage control, the civil servants already rushing to the scene.

"Medic!" Mercury shouted. _"Medic!"_

* * *

In the operating room, Jupiter had forced Venus back against the far wall, and though she stood tensely several paces away, it was obvious that Jupiter was ready to restrain her commander at a moment's notice if need be.

At first, Venus had been caught off guard at Mercury's abilities in medicines and treatments, but after the Jovian's insistence that Mercury knew what she was doing, and once she had seen the surgeon himself concede to Mercury's course of action, Venus had stepped back and allowed them to work on Mars.

Venus' fingers clenched tightly, her bloodstained gloves threatening to split at the seams when Mars screamed from the operating table in the center of the room. The crimson warrior, her fuku nearly unrecognizable given the blood that covered it and the ruined taters it had been reduced to, convulsed on the slab of stainless steel.

Venus lunged forward and Jupiter blocked her. The Jovian couldn't look her commander in the eye, and could only stand as an unbreachable barrier to keep her out of the way of the nurses and Mercury, all of whom struggled to hold Mars down as the surgeon worked his fastest.

Apparently, there were no such sedatives strong enough to completely put Mars to sleep. Mars gurgled through what could only be blood in her lungs and Venus clamped her lower lip between her teeth. Jupiter extended a hand parallel to her body as an added precaution to hold back her commander.

* * *

An hour later, after Venus' own wounds had been treated, after Jupiter had been sent out on guard duty, after the surgeon had left and the nurses held a silent vigil from the hallway, after Mars' tortured screams and gasping breaths had quieted, the crimson warrior lay in an exhausted, healing sleep on a bed in the far corner of the room.

Her body had been cleaned and her extensive wounds had been stitched. Her fuku had been removed; the magical bindings torn from her body, yet her senshi persona had not given way to her civilian one. Sill she remained as Mars - that long, raven hair, the golden band across her brow, and the crimson collar was just barely visible beneath the stark, white sheet that covered the rest of her shallowly breathing form.

Venus could not tear her terrified gaze from that collar – once a source of great contention for the Martian, now a part of herself that Rei reluctantly accepted. A part of Rei that Minako knew she was linked to. A part of Rei that she'd toyed with for far too long, a selfish game that had resulted in…

Venus turned her head a mere fraction. She didn't look at Mercury, but only acknowledged her presence. She tried to speak but her voice failed her. She shut her eyes, drew a shaky breath, and tried again.

"Is she… going to make it?"

Mercury kept her gaze diverted from her commander. "It wasn't just broken limbs and ribs." She said quietly as she watched Mars' slow, labored breaths. "She punctured one lung. The other had collapsed completely."

Venus drew a shaky breath and Mercury placed a hand on her shoulder. "But if she's made it this far, Minako-san," Mercury smiled weakly, "I'm sure Rei-san will pull through."

Venus' tear-rimmed eyes threatened to spill over, but she fought them back. She would not cry in front of her subordinates. Maybe not even in front of Rei. She drew herself upright, tense in the plastic chair next to Mars' prone form, and she snorted.

"The nerve of her. Running into battle like that." Venus' lower lip trembled despite her brave words. "When she wakes, I'll kill her for scaring us like that."

"You'll do nothing of the sort." Mercury said with a frown. She reached behind her commander to a small table at Mars' bedside, and she chose one of several devices; Mercurian diagnostic tools that even the Lunarian surgeon had been impressed with. She made a few passes with the device, letting it hover several inches away from the sheet covering Mars' body, and she studied the data intensely.

"Besides, " Mercury looked to her commander from the corner of an eye, "you can't blame her for following your orders. Even if those orders weren't expressly issued verbally."

Venus shot a warning glance at the Mercurian. She had been very discreet with the others about what she shared, or didn't share, with Rei. Mercury was no doubt perceptive given her analytical nature, but Venus couldn't help but remember that Ami had spent an entire night with Rei once, and Mercury's casual statement rubbed her the wrong way.

Too intent on her patient, Mercury was oblivious to her commander's growing anger. She replaced the device in favor of another, and subjected Mars to another touchless pass of the new instrument. "I don't understand the relationship that the two of you share. It lacks logic." Her expression and tone was flat, her comment not much more than a scientific statement.

"Logic?" Venus asked. "You're going to lecture me on logical relationships when you've been pining away for a Princess you'll never have while stringing Makoto along at the same time?"

Mercury took a step back, all too aware of the rising lilt in Venus' voice that carried a thinly veiled danger. She placed her hands up in supplication. "I was only trying to help-"

"You're hardly one to offer relationship advice, Mercury. What about that night you spent at the Crown with Rei?" Venus stood, never so aware of how much taller she was than her youngest senshi. "Don't think I didn't know about that!"

"Venus!" Mercury cried, shrinking away slowly. "Nothing happened between Rei-san and I! Even if I had-" She paused, knowing she was on thin ice and had to consider her words carefully, "Even if I had wanted to, she was perfectly confident that you were the only one she wanted."

Venus' breath caught in her throat. She finally noticed Mercury's terrified expression, the tense set of the small woman's shoulders. She stepped back quickly, trying to forget the dangerous anger she'd displayed by focusing on Mercury's words. Instead, Venus' brows furrowed and she looked down, catching a glimpse of Mars from the corner of her eye.

She snorted and stood tall. "Whatever. I'm out of here."

Venus marched towards the door, her body stiff and unyielding, not permitting herself to turn back to look over her shoulder. She paused at the threshold, the hair on her neck standing on end when an electronic beep caused Mercury to scramble. In her peripheral vision, Venus was vaguely aware of Ami fumbling among her devices on the table to Mars' right.

"Venus, wait!"

The leader of the senshi looked back over her shoulder. When Mercury said nothing else, Venus turned around slowly, observing the stark still Mercurian; her blue-tinged eyes wide and deathly serious, another of her devices held loosely in her fingers at her side. The small piece of plastic was familiar, Venus noted distantly. Hadn't she seen Ami piecing it together as a tool to identify the link between the monsters and the…

"Mercury?"

"Tell Luna," Mercury said, her tone a hoarse whisper as she examined the data, "Tell Luna that the monsters and the youma are one in the same. The ginzuishou…" she swallowed audibly, "The ginzuishou has returned."

Venus felt the color drain from her cheeks. Her breath was short, her pulse rapid. She nodded sharply, and without another word, she spun and left.

* * *

Venus went directly towards Serenity's chambers. She knew that the Princess was sleeping fitfully, unaware of anything beyond the loss of her precious Prince.

Venus tried to release her anger; anger she knew was mostly directed at herself. She knew enough to be quick in her conversation with Luna. As she'd seen in her conversation with Mercury, her temper was frighteningly short and she was likely to argue with the feline advisor if she didn't get in and get out quickly. And besides, Artemis was next on her list.

Luna paused her grooming as the antechamber doors swung open and Venus marched through as if possessed. She frowned distastefully at the blonde.

"You're a mess," the cat hissed. "Detransform immediately."

The wind was blown out of Venus' sails that easily. She looked down to her fuku, her gaze distant as she evaluated the blood that stained the orange and white armor.

Mars' blood.

_So much of it._

The mingling gold and crimson colors reminded her of the Venus and Mars daggers…

"I said detransform!" Luna repeated sharply. "What would the Princess think if she saw you like that?"

Venus' trembling hand fell to her side. In a golden glow, she became Minako; clean, untouched, pristine. But she could still _feel_ Mars' blood on her skin.

"What did you need, Venus?"

Minako looked to Luna, tried to drag herself out of the sinking mire of despair and introspection. She pushed her shoulders back, tried to find courage through her commanding posture.

She failed.

"Mercury made the connection." Minako's voice wavered. Her lower lip trembled. "The monsters are the youma. The ginzuishou has returned."

The Venusian looked into the cat's beady, black eyes. Luna was silent, her small mouth hanging open. Finally, the advisor ran a tongue over her fangs.

"We have data to analyze. Research to do. The ginzuishou must be found immediately." Luna up looked from the floor. "We'll call a meeting-"

"Not until Rei has recovered."

Luna snapped her attention back to the leader of the senshi. "Mars can be brought up to speed afterward," she reasoned. "We will not wait for her."

Minako's precarious hold on her temper slipped. Her calm façade crumbled. "We _will_ wait for her," she hissed. Whether she was conscious of it or not, the sudden rush of leadership and emotion trigged her transformation back into Venus, and though she was of lower rank than Luna - even as leader of the senshi - the feline advisor faltered before her.

"We do nothing until Rei regains consciousness." Venus commanded. "We do nothing until she's back with… until the senshi are whole again."

Luna retreated several paces, driven backwards by Venus' intensity. Finally, she tipped her head in concession.

"We will wait for Mars to recover, then." She conceded.

Venus crossed her arms over her chest. With a tight-lipped frown, she nodded. Wordlessly, she marched back out of the room.

* * *

Artemis was too busy analyzing data gathered from the monster attack to notice the cautious quiet that had descended over his fellow tacticians in the control room. His attention rapt on the screen in front of him, his paws poking commands at the keyboard, he released a very surprised squeak when he was suddenly yanked from his workstation by the scruff of his neck.

"Minako!" He cried, recognizing Venus' fuku, but when he glanced up and saw the barely controlled rage that burned in the Venusian's eyes, he shut his mouth quickly, piercing his tongue with a fang.

Venus carried his limp body as she marched from the control room, the heels of her sandals loud on the hard floor. Artemis' comrades would not make eye contact with either him or the leader of the senshi.

Venus tossed Artemis carelessly on the ground in the adjoining courtyard. His claws found purchase in the grassy soil and he pulled himself to his feet in a hurry and tried to remain on all fours as Venus' intensity pressed down on him.

"If you knew she was in danger, why didn't you tell me!"

"Because _she_ knew the appropriate protocol given the situation!" He tried. "You had your duty. Mars had hers. She spared you the concern because she knew you wouldn't be able to respond until the humans had left."

"Spared me the concern?" Venus' voice cracked wildly. "How was that sparing me concern? She almost _died_, Artemis!"

Artemis cowed his head, hanging it low. "She knew you had your own assignment, Venus."

Venus stamped her foot in the grass decisively. "Last time I checked, _I_ decided the assignments around here, not Mars Rei!"

Artemis looked up defiantly. "Then will you tell her?"

"Tell her what?" Venus barked.

"Tell her where she really stands in your life if this is how strongly you really feel about it! About her!"

Venus' hard glare seemed to lose its edge and she sighed, her shoulders slumping. "You think so too, huh?"

"_Everyone_ thinks so, Minako. Everyone but you." Artemis' voice dropped, was barely audible as he warred with his duty to his friend and his duty to the leader of the senshi.

"That's not true." Venus spun the toes of her sandals in the grass. "I just…"

"Minako-chan, you can love her and still lead her. You won't be any less of a commander for it. It's _yourself_ that you have to get over."

"Artemis…"

The white cat stepped forward and looked up at his comrade. "Minako-chan,"

He was forgotten when an insistent beep pulled Venus' attention to the communicator around her wrist. She scanned the text message quickly, and then breathed a sigh of relief. She shut her eyes, her face lax and soft and almost childlike.

"Sorry, Artemis." Her voice carried a hint of mischief. "I have to go. Something more important has come up."

"Is it Rei?" he asked.

Venus smiled weakly; her lower lip trembled.

"Minako," Artemis said softly, _"go to her."_

"Artemis…"

He smiled. "I'm proud of you, Minako."

That smile fought its way back onto Venus' face. She picked up her long time friend, squeezed him tightly, and deposited him at the door of the control room on her way back to sickbay.

* * *

Venus had only slid the pocket door open a fraction when she saw Rei on the bed in the far corner of the room, struggling to sit up. Ami was busy trying to limit Rei's movements, quickly stuffing pillows behind her back to give her further support.

Venus was encouraged that Mars' transformation had slipped; Rei's body had been able to handle the recovery, even though the telltale groans and grimaces showed just how much pain the Martian was really in. The thin hospital shift Rei wore showed large, healing scabs on her forearms and shoulders, but where those scabs had once been gaping wounds, her flesh torn and mangled, Mars' regenerative senshi powers had already mended the skin closed.

To Venus, Rei had never looked so beautiful, so _alive_. Venus wanted to rush to her, to feel Rei's skin under her fingers, to reassure herself that she was really there. She slid the door open a bit further, but paused when Ami passed one of her diagnostic tools over Rei's upright form.

"Your internal bleeding has nearly subsided," Ami said quietly, "but your bones are still mending, so don't move too much."

Rei only groaned, holding her once broken arm close to her abdomen. She looked up to Ami with a worried expression. "Minako?" She asked, her voice a hoarse whisper.

"She's fine." The Mercurian said crisply, still busily analyzing her device.

"But… the walls around us collapsed, and…"

"She pulled you out of there, Rei-san."

Rei tipped her head back onto the pillows and sighed as if defeated. After a long moment of silence, Venus finally put one foot into the door's opening, but then she paused.

"It should have been me pulling her to safety." Rei's sudden statement was blunt and rushed, and was followed by a several sharp coughs. She grunted and then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She frowned at several drops of blood that had splattered against her skin, and then she tightened her arms around her abdomen and endured the pain.

Silently, Venus stepped back out into the hallway. She slid the pocket door shut behind her, and she left.

* * *

Jupiter pushed away from the wall she'd been leaning against, a concerned expression etched into her strong features.

"What are you doing here?" She noticed her commander's blank eyes and neutral expression. "You should be in sickbay, waiting for Rei to wake up."

"She's awake." Venus replied flatly.

"Then, why aren't you-"

"Would _you_ want to see the person responsible for nearly getting you killed right after you regained consciousness?"

"Rei doesn't think that way." Jupiter shifted her weight and lowered her shoulders, trying to get her commander to look at her through the golden fall of bangs that hid Venus' eyes. "Besides, I'm sure there's no one else she'd rather see right now."

"How can you be so sure of that?"

Jupiter nearly recoiled. Venus finally looked up and the uncertainty Jupiter had heard in her voice was echoed in her troubled eyes. Uncertainly was not a term she'd ever think to associate with her commander, and she splayed a large hand on Venus' shoulder.

"Minako-san," Jupiter said sharply. "You _know_ how she feels about you."

"I _do_ know." Venus said desolately. It made her feel even worse knowing that she could do no real wrong in the Martian's eyes; just hearing Rei's words after she woke – Rei had been more concerned for _her_ when she herself had nearly died. With a pang of regret, she remembered Mars' collar.

"I don't deserve such dedication."

Jupiter squeezed Venus' shoulder. "Shouldn't you let _Rei_ be the judge of that? Can't you trust that she knows what right?"

Venus tore her gaze from the ground. "Trust?" her gaze grew distant, "is that what I'm lacking?"

Mars' voice echoed in Venus' head:

"_You need to figure out what you lack on your own, but __trust__ me when I say it's not love you lack for me."_

"Minako-san?" Jupiter asked tentatively.

Venus smiled brazenly. She clasped the Jovian's hand on her shoulder. "Thanks, Jupiter."

Jupiter rubbed the back of her neck. "What for?"

Venus only smiled wider. There were reports to file, research to do, damage control to catch up with, her Princess to check on, but for right now, her duties as a leader would have to take backseat to all of it.

Right now, something else was of a much higher priority.

* * *

Author's Notes:

Venus' super-human strength was, of course, pulled from Minako's freakish abilities in PGSM. Really, the woman had kicks that could crash down walls. Also, although trust was one of Rei's main themes, I think it's one that Minako could benefit from even more.

* * *

Preview, Chapter 18: Lifeline

Rei snorted and turned to Minako. "This is new."

"What is?" Minako asked tentatively. She leaned forward, stiff on the edge of the ornate chair she'd pushed in from the antechamber, and she once again reached out for Rei's forearm.

Rei narrowed her eyes. "You being here when I wake up."

Minako visibly flinched. She cowed her head and was silent for some time. "I deserve that," her voice was nearly inaudible, "and so much more."

There was silence as Rei observed her commander, allowing the Venusian to carry the burden of making or breaking conversation between them. Minako was unable to maintain eye contact with Rei, sparing only darting glances to her fingers where they held Rei's wiry forearm like a lifeline.

"It's trust, isn't it?" Minako nearly recoiled at the sound of her own voice. "You tried to tell me. It's trust that I lack."


	18. Chapter 18

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 18: Lifeline  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

She wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to open her eyes.

Given the darkness on the other side of her tightly closed eyelids, Rei realized that she was no longer in the brightly lit operating room, and knew that she could only be in her quarters. She understood sourly that she must have slipped back into unconsciousness some time after speaking with Ami, and had been brought back to her room to recover in the meantime.

Like any good Martian, she cursed her weakness bitterly.

Her brow furrowed and she knew she could no longer fight the pull to wakefulness. Its intensity nearly overrode the constant itch and irritation that heralded her healing injuries and Rei's fingers flitted to her forehead in an attempt to ease the pounding in her skull.

Soft fingers arrested her forearm, and Rei flinched.

"Can I get you anything? Painkillers?"

She had sensed Minako's presence; she didn't need the visual to be certain, but Rei opened her eyes, blinking away the hazy sleep-induced film. She scowled at Minako, despite the nervous and worried expression that had turned the Venusian's complexion a ghostly white. Her commander swept a handful of pills off the bedside table and offered them with a glass of water.

With a grunt, Rei sat up, and Minako was quick to arrange Rei's pillows behind her to ease the Martian into a near-sitting position. Rei all but snatched the pills from Minako's hand and swallowed them hastily, stubbornly refusing the proffered water.

Finally, Rei snorted and turned to Minako. "This is new."

"What is?" Minako asked tentatively. She leaned forward, stiff on the edge of the ornate chair she'd pushed in from the antechamber, and she once again reached out for Rei's forearm.

Rei narrowed her eyes. "You being here when I wake up."

Minako visibly flinched. She cowed her head and was silent for some time. "I deserve that," her voice was nearly inaudible, "and so much more."

There was silence as Rei observed her commander, allowing Minako to carry the burden of making or breaking conversation between them. Minako was unable to maintain eye contact with Rei, sparing only darting glances to her fingers where they held Rei's wiry forearm like a lifeline.

"It's trust, isn't it?" Minako nearly recoiled at the sound of her own voice. "You tried to tell me. It's trust that I lack."

"Congratulations," Rei said bitterly, holding her once broken arm across her abdomen. "You finally figured it out."

The uncomfortable silence descended again, and this time, Minako stewed in it, mulled in Rei's blatant rejection of her attempt to make amends. Perhaps she had expected Rei to accept her confession more readily. Perhaps she'd have to revert to a form of communication that Martians seemed more comfortable with expressing.

Luckily, Minako's emotions translated well into anger.

"That's awfully hypocritical of you," Minako barked, "for one who also doesn't trust others easily."

"Not _others,_'" Rei spat. "I only ever needed to trust _you_, and at least I knew to do it when it counted." She paused and seemed to consider her words briefly. "You told me, last night, that the Princess should be most important to me." Minako's expression hardened and Rei only forged forward. "I would lay down my life for Serenity, but I do not love her, and I do not trust her. Not in this lifetime."

Minako backpedaled from the force of the Martian's cryptic words. "Rei? What do you mean?"

Rei's dark gaze was distant, as though she were seeing something that Minako might never see. After a moment,, she shook her head dismissively. "Forget it. I don't know what I'm talking about." Her brow furrowed, and she slipped back into her typical anger, and it was clear that Minako was just as eager to pick up where they left off before Rei's strange tangent.

"Well, you're right." Minako cowed her head, though from the corner of her eye, she acknowledged Rei's surprise that she would admit any wrongdoing at all. "I should have trusted you."

Rei snorted and gazed at the far wall. Her anger had cooled, and with it, her bravado had lessened a degree. When she spoke, her words were a grumble laced with a piercing hurt that lay somewhere deep within her.

"You can't be a leader, let alone a lover, if you don't trust your partner." Rei finally met Minako's eyes. "As your subordinate, am I not part of your duty? Am I not one of your senshi?"

"My best. My… my second in command." Minako's words were a stream of consciousness she'd only just come to understand. "If anything were to happen to me-"

"Nothing will happen to you." Rei's voice was a swift bark. Although her gaze burned right through her commander, her eyes were haunted as though she suspected otherwise. "I've told you. You're mine to protect." She said defiantly. "It should have been me to pull you out of that rubble."

Minako refused to take the bait, and stubbornly stayed on topic. "Can't we just be equals, Rei?"

"Equals?" Rei scoffed. "How can we be equals when you insist on keeping us separated even though we're clearly better warriors when we fight together, when we aren't angry with each other, when we aren't playing these damned _games_ of yours?"

"I don't want to play games anymore."

"…eh?" Rei's voice lost that stubborn harshness and she looked up. Minako's words had been so quiet, but the conviction she found in her commander's eyes told the truth of the certainty Minako felt.

"I'm tired of fighting you. Of fighting myself. I'm tired of trying to be this made up ideal of a perfect Venusian. I want… I want to be _better_ than Venusian. I just want to be Venus Minako."

"Then _be_ Venus Minako."

The leader of the senshi chuckled. A small smile tugged at her lips. She might have once brushed off Rei's easy simplicity. Instead, she found strength in it. "I want to." She said. "But I think I can only be myself if I'm with you."

Rei met Minako's smirk boldly, the lighthearted interaction between them harkening back to when they had first become friends months ago. "Then, I'm not just a stepping stone on your path to becoming a model Venusian anymore?"

"No." Minako admitted. "You're more important than that. You're my Sai Sushuri."

Rei frowned at the foreign term she'd heard once before and Minako fidgeted, her free hand tugging at the corner of the bed sheet. "It's similar to what you call Sai Vikhe, only," she smiled mischievously, "the sentiment isn't so _barbaric_."

"Oh?" Rei raised an eyebrow.

"To a Venusian, a Sai Sushuri is a one, true love. A soulmate, even."

"Hn." Rei said gruffly. She fell silent for a moment before she nodded. "Then I understand."

Minako continued to fidget, twisting the corner of the sheet into a crumpled wrinkle. Her discomfort did not go unnoticed by the Martian, and finally, Rei smiled – an act devoid of anger, devoid of sarcasm and malice, a truly honest gesture.

"What?" Rei asked dryly. "I already told you once before what you are to me. Do you really need to hear it again?"

Minako sat stiffly, her expression one of indignant shock. Rei chuckled at the response, only to grimace when the effort of the laugh caused her pain.

"Serves you right!" The Venusian's cry was half laugh, half righteousness. "You proclaimed nothing of your feelings for me. You said only that other Martians could read your intent in your aura!"

Rei tightened the arm that wasn't held by her commander around her abdomen and groaned through sporadic chuckles that she couldn't seem to repress. "Fine," she gasped for breath, "you're right, even if you _are_ needy."

Minako snorted and turned her nose to the air, though she knew that Rei reveled in the blush she couldn't keep from her cheeks. She wasn't entirely sure if it was appropriate for the leader of the senshi to feel like a giddy school girl, but when Rei leaned towards her, closing the gap between them, Minako felt butterflies in her stomach.

"You are my Sai Vikhe." Rei's voice was low and quiet. Her words were punctuated by pulling a slightly dazed Minako off the edge of her seat and onto the edge of the bed. "You are the one I protect."

Minako leaned forward, one arm on either side of the pillows that Rei. "Say it again."

"Sai Vikhe." Rei said, lifting herself off her pillows, keeping the pained hiss from her lips as they neared Minako's.

"Again." Minako's quiet demand was a whisper as she canted her head in anticipation.

"Later." Rei breathed into Minako's mouth, silencing any further recourse as her fingers threaded through her commander's hair.

Minako squeaked in surprise when the Martian pulled her down towards her, and she giggled as she landed on her elbows, cautious to not put much pressure on Rei's chest. "I hardly think you'd be up for such activities after a near death experience."

"'Ch!" Rei cursed and then nearly pouted. "I was _not_ near death! Besides," she smirked and pulled Minako closer, one hand sliding under the hem of Minako's shirt, ghosting her fingers along her commander's rib cage. "I feel _so_ much better now."

Minako hissed and basked in the attention. "You know," she purred, resisting the urge to return the favor, "the doctor wouldn't approve-"

"Screw the doctor."

"Rei," Minako said sourly, dodging the Martian's lips at the last moment, "Your doctor was Ami-chan."

Rei stilled for a moment and then shrugged carelessly. "Fine then," she said contritely, her hands once again roaming, pulling another gasp from Minako. "Screw _you_."

"Rei!" Minako admonished her subordinate half-heartedly, but Rei's lips quickly silenced her.

----

True to the injuries she had suffered, Rei's recovering body wouldn't allow her to do much, though not for lack of trying. She soon fell back into sleep; this one deep and refreshing; content in her surroundings. And when she woke, with Minako still asleep and curled tightly against her, when the Venusian finally opened her eyes and snuggled closer, Rei knew Minako would stay next to her through the morning.

And perhaps, she'd stay with her to the very end.

* * *

For the next several days, a general peace seemed to put the entire Moon Palace at ease. The Princess had pulled out of her depression, reassured that she would see her Prince again soon, and she had once again returned to her regular activities. She had been none the wiser for the terrible monster attack that had taken place outside the palace walls; the attack that had very nearly taken the life of one of her guardians.

Serenity had once again latched onto Ami now that Endymion was no longer around to hold her company. The Princess had been a little surprised that Makoto often accompanied she and Ami when not busy with her own duties, and she had even noticed a heightened closeness that those two senshi displayed, to include an awkward trip to the Crown, where Motoki had insisted on joining the three of them in a couple of songs. Serenity, however, rarely mentioned her observation, so long as she was duly entertained.

And as long as she was dutifully appointed as the taste tester in the rekindled bet between Ami and Makoto, she wasn't about to complain. It had been weeks since the bet – a matter of taste between home cooked Jovian cuisine and replicated Mercurian dishes - had been initiated and then similarly forgotten about. But when Makoto offered a plate; overflowing with a mixture of various leafy greens, a generous helping of marinated meat topped with fresh, exotic fruits, and Ami placed before her a simple bowl; filled halfway with a dark broth and an equal number of uniformly sliced vegetables, grains, and what Serenity could only assume was boiled meat, she instantly sank a fork into Makoto's dish first.

"Serenity-chan!" Ami exclaimed.

The Princess paused mid-chew and had the decency to feign embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Ami-chan, but experience has proven that although your replicated foods smell quite good, Jovian cuisine simply tastes better." She shrugged and smiled. "Nothing can beat homemade, Ami-chan."

Ami frowned. "But replication methods involve so much less work."

"Replicated food lacks heart, Ami-chan." Makoto puffed herself up proudly.

"Heart?" Ami pondered the idea, but jumped slightly when Makoto elbowed her discreetly and cocked her head towards the door. "Looks like Minako finally let the porcelain doll out of her room." She said under her breath with a knowing smile.

Ami looked up, surprised to see Rei striding through the dining room doors, all but physically shaking Minako off of her with Minako hovering over her like a mother hen.

Serenity clasped her hands together. "Rei-chan! I'm so glad to see that you're feeling better." She smiled widely and shoveled a generous portion of roasted fruit into her mouth. "I thought senshi couldn't get sick?"

Minako smiled widely. "The Martian Plague's pretty powerful, Serenity-chan."

Ami rolled her eyes and groaned at the made up illness. She had assumed her commander could have come up with a better cover story than _that_.

Makoto laughed, going along with it for the sake of their Princess. "I don't know what's worse, the Martian Plague or a Plague of Martians."

"_Please."_ Minako said dramatically. "One Martian is enough. The very thought of a plague of them makes me shudder."

Rei turned on her commander, an eyebrow arched high. "At least _my_ people don't engage in social backstabbing and political debauchery for fun."

"Oh?" Minako asked, "At least _my_ people don't take pot-shots at one another during street brawls developed for sport!"

"_Pot-shots?"_ Rei said. "I'll show you pot-shots," the Martian cocked her fist at her side.

Despite their harsh words, it was obvious that their relationship had taken a turn for the better. It was more than the closeness they shared, more than the lilt to their voices or the way they fought back their smiles while arguing with threats that were openhanded. The witty banter they'd always indulged in, however, still seemed to be fair game, even if it no longer carried the amount of malice it once had.

Minako's mischievous smirk slipped from her lips and she placed a palm over Rei's fist. "Stop being a reactive Martian and take a seat. You're still recovering, you know."

There was a tense moment of silence. Days ago, Rei might have slugged Minako for even insinuating weakness on her part. Instead, Rei only snorted and noisily pulled her chair away from the table. She threw her nose in the air away from her commander and offered Serenity a small smile.

"Thank you for your concern, Serenity-san. I'm mostly recovered from the," she narrowed her eyes at Minako, _"plague_, but then, I seem to heal faster than most."

Serenity smiled brightly, as though Rei's recovery were her own doing. _"That's_ because you're my senshi." She proclaimed mater-of-factly.

There was a strained reaction around the table. Makoto offered a tentative chuckle that fell flat. Ami rose from her seat and pushed the bowl of soup towards Rei with a wavering smile, but before she could suggest that their newly recovered friend be a second opinion in the ongoing debate between replicated and handmade foods, the doors to the dining room swung open.

"Mother!" Serenity's fork clattered against the china plate.

Queen Serenity swept into the room, her long, black hair gathered in a braid behind her. She wore a measured smile, but her eyes were rimmed with red that told of lack of sleep. Her daughter's senshi pushed away from their seats at the expansive table and they each dropped to a knee accordingly.

She might have thought to reprimand her daughter for such an unladylike show of excitement, yet she still managed to gather the young woman in her arms as Serenity nearly ran right through her.

"Mother!" Serenity wrapped her arms around her mother and rested her head on her shoulder as though she were still shorter than the other woman. "To what do we owe this honor?"

Queen Serenity smiled indulgently, smoothing her hands over her daughter's long hair. "I thought we might discuss Endymion's proposal to invite you and your guardians to Earth."

"To Earth!?" Even the Queen flinched at the intensity of Serenity's cry. "Really?"

"We will discuss the specifics in private," she said, and then she caught Minako's gaze meaningfully. "And then we will discuss logistics."

Minako bowed her head deeper and the Queen led her daughter from the room. The senshi were just rising to their feet when another presence entered the room.

"Luna." Minako said flatly as she rose to her feet.

The cat treaded cautiously. "I heard that Mars has recovered."

After a moment's silence, Minako nodded sharply. "We can hold conference if you're ready."

Rei looked between her commander and the cat, wondering what kind of cryptic understanding passed between them. Moments later, she wished she'd never known at all.

* * *

The senshi huddled close to each other around the table. Luna sat perched on the tabletop, watching silently as Ami linked her device to a plate of glass that served as a monitor. It flashed to life, displaying a transparent readout detailing the small amount of information that her data had been able to synch with from the Eternity Main System.

Graphs and charts that Minako wished she could disregard cycled endlessly. She pinched the sides of her temples as though battling back a headache. "So the monsters and the youma are one in the same."

"Yes." Ami said darkly. "The astral patterns of the creatures match to the data that the Eternity Main System recorded over a millennia ago when the creatures were last seen. The match is conclusive."

Luna cleared her throat, the hoarse croak loud in the silence. "It bothers me to put so much stock in a legend a thousand years old, but-"

"Both the Eternity Main System _and_ my data can't be false." Ami said tersely.

"Of course not," Luna said hesitantly, "but the problem now becomes finding the host of a mythical jewel. How can we determine the holder of the ginzuishou?"

Ami focused on the monitor. Her index finger triggered a scrolling mechanism and the text that detailed what little was known of the legend appeared on the screen. "It's entirely likely that the host of the ginzuishou isn't even aware of the power they harbor. It's said that the jewel is the living fusion of both great good and great evil. It hides itself in this way by remaining inconspicuous and undetectable."

Minako leaned forward and rested her chin in her palm. "So any usual suspects; murderers, prisoners, wanderers, people we'd classify as _bad_ may not be responsible."

"Precisely." Ami answered.

"If the ginzuishou is both good and evil," Rei said, "it's entirely possible that its host ranges to and from both extremes."

"Split personalities?" Makoto offered.

Ami shrugged non-comitally. "For all we know, the jewel itself could reach out to others as well; either for good or for bad. The myth is vague. We have no way of knowing. "

"Wonderful," Minako cursed. "And we have absolutely no way of tracking its host? The Eternity Main System can't… synch up with your programs the way it did with identifying the youma?"

"No." Ami answered. "With the youma, there were so many attacks during the original occurrence a thousand years ago that the Eternity Main System operators were able to take appropriate readings, but by the time the ginzuishou manifested its full power in its host… it was too late."

"Too late?" Makoto asked.

Ami would not answer.

"The ginzuishou's host nearly obliterated the Moon." Luna said slowly. "The Eternity Main System was nearly destroyed. It was only by the efforts of those technicians that survived the ginzuishou's manifestation that they were able to repair and rebuild it." Luna paced from one end of the table to the other. "It's for this reason we need to be able to identify the host as soon as possible. We _must_ devise a way."

"I think I can do it."

All eyes turned to Rei. The Martian tried for a smirk but settled on an uncertain smile. "The host should have the same energy signature that I use to detect the youma." She steepled her fingers. "It won't be easy. I'll have to single out the thread that belongs to the host among the numbers of monsters that appear when they attack, but I should be able to do it."

"Rei…"

Rei silenced her commander with a sharp and knowing look. Minako shut her mouth with a click. She forced her gaze back to Luna, but under the table, Minako placed her hand on Rei's thigh.

Luna nodded shortly. "It's been decided." She turned to Ami. "As the tactician for the group, do you agree?"

Ami fidgeted for a moment. "I do not like that Rei should carry the burden. I'll try to make a new device to help her. I know the Eternity Main System has no conclusive data on the host, but perhaps I can devise a way to second Rei's findings."

Luna nodded. "That is acceptable. We will want a failsafe before we attack the holder of the ginzuishou."

"Attack?" Ami's voice was a small squeak.

Minako offered no consolation, her gaze still hard on Luna. "We will have to kill the host of the jewel. It's the only way to completely negate the threat to the Moon Kingdom."

"But the host may not even know what they're capable of." Makoto said, her hands forming fists.

"Exactly the point." Rei's words were quiet. She crossed her arms over her chest. "You've seen how much damage the youma have caused. Do you want to see what damage the holder of the ginzuishou is truly capable of?"

Makoto cowed her head, and this submission seemed to anger the Mercurian.

"This is murder," Ami said. "Murder of an innocent, no less."

"Correct." Minako was unflinching in her decision.

Luna laid a paw on Ami's hand. "The decision had been made. We must consider the safety of what is left of our Kingdom.

"I understand," Ami hung her head low. "But I don't have to agree."

Minako's commanding glare was telling enough. She didn't have to remind Ami that whether she agreed or not, she was bound to obey.

Luna shifted noisily. It was a conscious effort to keep from digging her claws into the ornate tabletop. "We have one more matter of discussion before I dismiss you." Confident that the senshi had disconnected from their previous trains of thought, the cat continued. "Although I'm well aware that we can't _schedule_ times to fight the youma, we must continue with caution in regards to future attacks. There are still half a dozen Earthlings here in the Palace. We can only hope none of them found out about the last attack in the Jovian Tent City. They don't have free reign outside of the Palace proper, but they could have found out-"

"Beryl." Minako spat the name. "She stayed behind, didn't she? She'd be of highest rank among them, the one most likely to cause a problem if they found out about the youma attacks."

Ami leaned forward. "You don't think she-"

Minako leaned against the back of her chair, her brow furrowed. "I hope not. I think she's too focused on Endymion to see anything beyond him. I can't even imagine why she chose to stay."

"Do not doubt her."

"Rei?" Minako turned to her subordinate's cold voice.

"Do not doubt a woman in love." Rei said flatly.

It wasn't a statement one would have expected from the Martian but for the distant look in her eyes, and all Minako could do was shudder, for she knew all too well that Rei had gone to place where she could not follow.

* * *

The wealth of information that Beryl had stumbled upon was staggering, even by her standards. She had seen and followed Queen Serenity from a distance, and she had been pleased in her decision to linger outside the door that kept the senshi from her view instead of following after the Princess and the Queen. She highly doubted that those two would be having such a revealing conversation.

Given the door and the distance that separated them, however, she couldn't hear their conversation in its entirety, but she had gleaned more than she needed. She was smug in the knowledge that these alien women saw her as a threat – and as well they should, for she was now armed with information that would aid her in turning her peoples away from the Lunarians

Never one to overstay her welcome, Beryl stepped away from the door when she heard the telltale sound of chairs pushing away from the table, and she turned away to make her retreat.

"_Wait."_

Beryl paused at the disembodied voice; unsure if the hissing tones came from the hallway or inside her own head. Neither option seemed to comfort her.

"_You can hear me."_ The voice said with certain smugness. _"I can sense that you are attuned to the arcane, and that you seek it out. And if you can hear my voice, then you can channel me."_

"Show yourself!" Beryl hissed. The voice; bodiless and powerful was uncomfortable to listen to, and she spun in a complete circle, her hands fisted at her sides.

The voice laughed – a low, hissing chuckle. _"That, my lady, I can not do. But I can show you other things of interest."_

"Like what?" Beryl's voice was tense and on edge. Her gaze darted down the hallways frantically.

"_Follow me."_

"How? I can't even _see_ you!"

"_Stop looking and listen, human."_

There was a chilling command in those icy words that seemed to have no capacity for inflection, and Beryl clamped her mouth shut. The quiet sounds she'd come to associate with the Moon Palace were familiar, and she could hear the senshi disengaging behind the door.

"_Hurry now and follow me."_

Beryl couldn't say exactly how she knew where to go. It was more like she was being led and her feet moved her body without her brain giving the proper commands. Her pace quickened and slowed as if on autopilot as she weaved between Palace servants and Lunarians in the hallways. She found a stairwell and descended several floors. She was vaguely aware of the changes in décor and the palace structure as it reverted from rich marbles and granites to simple, wooden beams and plaster and stone walls. She knew she was in an old and unused part of the Palace, and when her body stopped in front of a nondescript wooden door, one of many in a dimly lit hallway, she offered the door an arched eyebrow.

"Why have you brought me here?" She demanded of the voice.

"_I am accustomed to asking the questions."_ The voice emitted a cold persuasion. _"And I would ask you the same question, for you called me to you."_

Beryl narrowed her eyes. "You were right in that I am in tune to the arcane, but I did not actively seek you out. Where I come from, I would call you an evil spirit, but I can sense that you are more than that, and my skill is not so great to summon a being of your qualifications."

"_Hn."_ The voice seemed pleased. _"I like you. I think we would make a good pair, you and I."_

Though she was frightened of the voice, Beryl was unrelenting and refused to be controlled. "I do not understand what you want, and I do not like to play games."

"_Yes. We will get along just fine."_ The voice chuckled humorlessly. _"It will do you no good to stand in the middle of a hallway, looking like you are talking to yourself. Open the door and I will explain myself."_

Beryl stared at the featureless door for a long moment. She could sense the inherent darkness of the spirit she spoke with, but she didn't figure it much darker than her own tendencies, even though it was malicious and powerful.

"_Enter on your own free will, human. I will not force you."_

Beryl stepped forward, and she entered the threshold. She shut the door behind her and walked into the center of the small, plaster walled room. Save for a stone hearth on one wall and a window that showed only another wing of the Palace, the room was empty and featureless. Rei and Minako would have instantly recognized it as the room that Minako had sought to use for fire-readings, the very room that Rei had refused to use.

Beryl paused and concentrated on her arcane spiritual senses. "How old are you?" She asked. "You seem as though you are a part of this place." She canted her head in thought. "Centuries? Millennia?"

"_Older."_ The voice hissed. _"But that is of little importance if my identity is discovered."_

"Your identity?" Though the voice held no physical form, Beryl shuddered as though predatory eyes were bearing down on her. She thought back to what she had overheard from the meeting between the senshi and she swallowed audibly.

"You," she whispered, "you are the ginzuishou."

"_I am the ginzuishou only in part."_

"Only in part??"

"_I am the darkness that resides within the light. The light represses me and holds me in check, and only once in every thousand years am I allowed to awaken and feed."_

"To… feed?"

"_Yes."_ The voice hissed. _"You could not see the physical manifestation of my powers, but I am sure you heard of the monster attack several days ago."_

"And those before that. I've heard the rumors." Beryl's eyes narrowed. "You feed off the living, do you not?"

"_I feed on souls."_ Beryl shivered and the voice continued. _"Long ago, I was held guilty for crimes lost to the endlessness of time. Though death might have been preferable, I was not to be killed, and so I was imprisoned, forced into deep sleep with intermittent release only to feed enough to sustain myself."_

"Then the light is your other half – your jailer. If you feed on souls, what does the light feed on?"

"_Its host."_

Beryl nearly smirked. "Then the light is no better than that which it guards against."

"_It is an imperfect resolution. An injustice. I wish to overthrow the light and break free from this wrongful prison."_

"Is it possible?"

"_I almost accomplished freedom the last time I was awake to walk this plane. But this time, I will succeed. And you will help me."_

"I will?" Beryl crossed her arms over her chest. "Why?"

The voice paused as though it were subduing its anger. _"You do not fear me, and that makes you a partner worthy of my merits. It also makes you an annoyance. We will strike a deal, you and me."_

"What can you give me?"

"_What do you want, besides access to my powers?"_

"I want Endymion." There was no hesitation in Beryl's answer, which was accompanied by a smug smile.

"_Endymion? A human man?"_ The voice waited and Beryl nodded. _"I do not understand your logic, but you shall have that which you desire."_

Beryl smirked. "And what will I do to help you achieve your goal?"

"_To break free of the light, I will require energy. More energy than I can absorb though my feedings, for the light monitors my hunger and will know when I have had enough. But if you can gather energy for me; malice, fear and pain, it makes me strong, and I know you have suggestive power over a planet full of people."_

"You give me too much credit," Beryl said. "I have no such power of suggestion."

"_You will, human."_

Beryl snorted. "And when you have gathered enough energy to overthrow the light, what then?"

"_Then I will be able to do as I wish. I can possess my host and become her. I can live without sleeping for a thousand years at a time. I will be free from my prison."_

"Your host," Beryl asked. "Who is she?"

The voice paused in the realization that too much valuable information had already been given. _"I would not give away such a weakness. My host is weak compared to me."_

"But your host is not weak when you control her…" Beryl suddenly understood. "You _gain_ control of your host and have access to your powers when your host is in a time of anguish or malice."

"_Correct. You show your worthiness again, human."_

"Then what will you do once you become your host and have full access to your powers?"

"_I will devour the Moon Kingdom the way I almost did the last time I walked this satellite. But do not fear; I will overlook your puny planet in exchange for your assistance. I will leave this solar system, this galaxy, and I will find a more suitable feeding ground. This one has been over-harvested, and has begun to fail."_

Beryl shivered at the thought behind those words. "But, if you failed the last time, how will you defeat your guardian this time around?"

"_Do not trouble yourself with the specifics, human. Did I not give you a job to do? Go. Start with those most readily at your disposal. You already have information which will be quite interesting to them."_

"At my disposal?" Beryl asked. "The diplomats? But they'll never take me seriously-"

"_Trust yourself, Beryl. I told you I will give you the tools you need to accomplish your tasks, and to win Endymion."_

"Trust myself?"

"_Yesssssss." _

Beryl felt the power of the voice begin to recede and she reached out with her spiritual senses. "Wait!" She called. "I don't even know what to call you!"

The voice paused in its slow departure. _"You may call me… Metallia."_

"Metallia…"

The evil presence was sucked back into the depths of the old part of the Moon Palace, and in its wake, Beryl stood in the empty room with her jaw slack and her breath labored.

* * *

Beryl climbed the steps back to the main floors of the Palace slowly. Metallia's influence – that cold, dark, permeating tingle that had hampered her other senses had lifted, and she felt numb and exhausted in its wake.

Disconnected, she walked up the center of the stairwell, and didn't even notice when a royal Lunarian couple scoffed at her, each having to walk on the other side of her to avoid impact. It was only the subtle auras of the senshi that drew her away from her captive introspection of the evil spirit for which she would now do its bidding.

Beryl's gaze lifted from the floor. She had not stopped walking and neither had the senshi. Minako, that arrogant little Venusian, walked with her head held high, staring forward and pointedly ignoring Beryl as she passed her. The Jovian and the Mercurian passed by on Beryl's other side, both women doggedly observing their own feet as they trotted past.

It was only Rei, the Martian with spiritual powers that Beryl sensed rivaled her own who dared make eye contact. Half frozen on the landing, Rei's eyes never left Beryl's, and no words were exchanged between the two as Beryl brushed past Rei and continued her measured ascent of the steps.

* * *

Preview, Chapter 19: Serious Business

"Earth."

"What?" Minako's gaze turned back to Rei and she involuntarily shivered when she easily translated the Martian's body language. Rei's eyes were shut, her voice was distant, her body was rigidly tense. She was tapping into her spiritual abilities.

Slowly, Rei opened her eyes and the troubled darkness that Minako found there frightened her. Paying attention only to Rei, Minako tuned out Makoto and Ami's insistent questioning on the other end of the transmission.

When she spoke, Rei's voice held a chilling certainty.

"Serenity's gone to Earth."


	19. Chapter 19

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 19: Serious Business  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Ami rolled away from her desk, the wheels of her chair rolling easily over the smooth stone floor. She tipped her head back and her bangs fell away from her face as she stared at the high ceiling. After counting to thirty, she forced herself to roll back to her desk where she picked up a pair of tweezers, and with surgical precision, she plugged the ends of a small, green wire into a mess of circuits inside of a small, black box.

The connection slid into place with a quiet pop and she cursed herself, realizing she'd connected the wire to the wrong circuit. Ami pulled it back out with steady hands and pressed the tweezers back to the desk quietly. She stared at the blank wall before her for a long time.

Ami knew the importance of the small device; it would be a key tool to help Rei identify the holder of the ginzuishou, but for the life of her, she couldn't keep her concentration on the electronics – a hobby which had failed to hold her interest for the very first time.

She fingered the communicator strapped to her wrist idly, and before she realized what she was doing, she'd sent Makoto a message.

* * *

[I'd like to see you if you're free, Makoto-san.]

The shower, a constant rain hitting the tile in the bathroom, was the only other sound in the room as Motoki fingered the strange device that Makoto usually kept strapped tightly to her wrist. The message was easy to read, but responding to it seemed beyond him. As he pressed small buttons and turned tiny dials, he couldn't help but feel a surge of jealousy at this mystery 'Mercury' who had sent Makoto such a vague message.

Slowly grasping an understanding of the communicator's controls, he cycled through the characters of the Lunarian common language. Managing to type a reply, he couldn't help but lament the fact that he and Makoto shared no defined relationship, regardless of his longing for one with her. The Jovian was fiercely independent, bordering on mysterious for how little he truly knew about her. He knew where he stood in Makoto's life - he was little more than a friend with benefits, terms that he had initially been pleased with, but had eventually grown to dislike.

As Motoki found the communicator's 'send' button, he only hoped this mystery 'Mercury' wasn't any closer to Makoto than he was.

"Motoki…" Makoto's voice suddenly hung thickly in the air. "What are you doing?"

The Lunarian's gaze shot up and he nearly dropped the communicator. He could tell from the thinly veiled anger in Makoto's eyes that now was not the time to appreciate the damp woman clothed only in a small towel wrapped loosely around her waist.

"Who's Mercury?" Motoki's voice was distant and flat.

Makoto cocked a leg behind her. Her hands tensed at her sides and she knew that Motoki did not miss the defensive gesture. "She's-"

"She?"

Makoto's eyes narrowed. "We've been over this before, Motoki." She said sternly. "I've told you that I won't tie myself down to anyone."

Motoki cowed his head. "It's one of your friends, isn't it? One of the friends you come to the Crown with?"

"So what if it is? What did you say to her?"

"Only that you were here with me." Motoki answered quietly. "She wanted to see you. Makoto?"

The Jovian was already pulling her pants over her hips and Motoki stood awkwardly as she hurriedly clasped the buttons on her blouse. Marching forward, she slipped her communicator out of Motoki's limp grasp. Strapping it to her wrist, she offered him a small smile.

"Sorry," she said, her voice genuinely remorseful, "but I have to go."

"Mako-chan?"

Makoto paused at the door. "Mercury was first," she said to the quiet hallway. Looking back over her shoulder, she opened the door and stepped across the threshold. "She was always first."

* * *

The lights throughout the palace were dimmed to designate the time as evening, even though the Sun and the Earth provided ample brightness through the large plate-glass windows. Ami sat at the dining room table, a fork distractedly pushing a chunk of meat around the rim of a china plate. The dish was a recreation of her favorite Jovian meal and she realized morosely that the replicated food was of no consolation.

Makoto had been right. Replicated dishes lacked the heart that made the food that Makoto cooked taste so much better. With tears that Ami reasoned were illogical given the context, she realized that she had lost her bet.

The door to the dining room swung open. Ami knew it was Makoto; she could tell by the cadence of the well-worn leather boots that closed the distance. But although Ami was surprised that Makoto had left Motoki to come for her, she remained cool and detached. Still pushing her meat around the plate, she finally looked up and offered Makoto – breathing raggedly, her hair a damp mess and her shirt barely more than halfway buttoned – a wan smile.

"You were right." Ami's voice was quiet with defeat. "It's just not the same when it's replicated. It's much better when you make it."

Bringing her ragged breaths under control, Makoto stepped forward cautiously and tried to match Ami's false smile. "I can teach you to make it, if you'd like."

"You misunderstand." Ami's smile tugged downwards and she tried to right it. "It's much better when you make it _for_ me. Even if I tried, it would still lack heart."

Makoto's brow furrowed. She rounded the table, closing the distance that separated them swiftly and grabbed Ami roughly by the wrist. Ami's fork clattered to her plate as she was yanked to her feet and pulled against Makoto's chest, the Jovian's free arm wrapping tightly around her waist.

"Don't say that." Makoto's voice was a hiss. "You don't lack heart, Ami-chan. I _know_ you don't."

One hand arrested by the wrist and the other pinned to her side, Ami shook in Makoto's hold. A single tear rolled down her cheek and she pushed off on her toes until she was standing at her tallest, and once she was there, she had as little trouble capturing Makoto's lips as Makoto had accepting Ami's eager kiss.

* * *

Rei was an intense and passionate woman by nature, but she was not the clingy type. As the two women walked through the royal gardens, it was, in fact Minako that walked closer to her subordinate than decorum might have deemed appropriate.

"You met with Queen Serenity?" Rei's gaze was distant; she looked at the garden without really seeing its display of colors, textures, or it's composition.

Minako nodded. "She had a few moments to spare with me. We'll depart for Earth tomorrow, midday. Just the four of us and the Princess."

The Martian arched an eyebrow. "We don't bring the fanfare of a diplomatic force as the Earthlings did?"

Minako smirked smally. "My plan is to get in and get out as quickly as possible. We'll spend only five days on the surface."

"You fear for the Princess' safety."

Minako looked up at Rei's flat tone; indicative that such was the Martian's own thoughts. "No. I don't. Why do you?"

Rei looked at the sandy path beneath her boots. Her answer was a while in coming. "I have the feeling that we won't be well-received on their planet."

Minako wrapped her arms across her chest. Distracted strides carried her farther from Rei as she pondered. "It's true that the shitennou seemed reserved, but Endymion seems to embrace a union between our kingdoms, and his diplomats have been very adamant about fostering good relationships between our peoples. I don't know why you-"

"Shh." Rei lunged forward and slipped her fingers around Minako's forearm. Minako canted her head to the side and heard a multitude of voices from the other side of a dense hedge. "We're interrupting someone's meeting." Rei said quietly. "We should leave."

Rei turned to leave but Minako was quick to grab her. "Wait." Minako insisted. She took several steps towards the boxwoods and peered through the dense foliage. It wasn't just the fact that a dozen high ranking royal advisors sat in a loosely knit circle of conference, but that some topic had managed to unite so many fickle, opinionated people in one place at one time that surprised her.

"I'm leaving." Rei said curtly. "I don't like to eavesdrop."

"No." Minako spun and tightened her hold on her subordinate's arm. "We need to know what they're saying. This is more than rumor and gossip. This is serious business, Rei."

Despite the tight frown on her face, Rei nodded. Though she would not dispute her commander's decision, she did turn her back to the proceedings, opting less to listen, and more to guard Minako from possible detection. She assumed the leader of the senshi had the authority to listen in, but the cautious Martian still did not want any unnecessary surprises.

Minako leaned forward and pulled back several leafy branches, and from her vantage point, she could see and hear the secret council quite well.

* * *

"The novelty has worn off. It doesn't matter what kind of a couple our Princess and that _human_ Prince would make. We can not trust the Earthlings."

"Dirt! The Earthlings are Lunarian outcasts. They turned their back on us a thousand years ago."

"But they do not know this! Our shared history has been written out of their collective knowledge. Their lifespans are too short and they do not remember."

"And how will they feel when they realize our longevity? Will they see us malevolent beings? Is it fair for the Princess to fall in love with a man destined to live only eighty or ninety years?"

"She has already fallen for him, if you ask me. It is too late to be cautious of her feelings."

"If they were to wed, what would happen to what's left of our Kingdom? Would we merge our peoples? Could a married couple of such influence maintain separate allegiances? There would be arguments over moneys, armies, priorities… not to mention heirs!"

"Do we have the presumption to even debate this? Our resources dwindle; we are all that is left of a great Empire! We must find a way to cut our losses. We must continue to exist in some fashion!"

* * *

The argument continued to rage, yet Minako stepped away from the hedge, her complexion white and her expression pinched.

Rei relaxed slightly, though she still stood guard. "It is not so easy," she said cryptically. "There are many sides to the story, and many players involved. Everyone is affected by Serenity and Endymion."

"I know that." Minako snapped. As leader of the senshi, and a Venusian to boot, she was not so naive not to have thought of the possibilities of discontented peoples, but the intelligence she had just happened upon did not ease her plans to travel to Earth. She had a Princess to protect.

Serenity.

_Serenity?_

Minako's blood ran cold.

"Rei?"

The Martian shot a worried glance to her commander when she heard the unexpected strangled whisper. "What?"

"Have you _seen_ Serenity lately?"

"No. Not since the Queen took her from us during breakfast. Minako?"

"Luna, Luna, do you copy?" Minako was already barking into her communicator.

"Yes, Venus?" The cat's voice was staticy over the airwaves.

"Have you seen Serenity this afternoon?"

"I have not. She skipped out on her tutoring session. I would guess that she is probably with Makoto or Ami at the Crown. Wouldn't you?"

"Of course." Minako replied, her haunted eyes on Rei. "Thanks, Luna." The Venusian ended the transmission quickly and pressed a series of buttons on her communicator. She tapped her foot impatiently when her call was not immediately answered.

* * *

There was a brief tangle of limbs, but finally, Makoto wrenched her arms away from Ami. Ami pushed away from the dining room table and hurriedly tugged her shirt back to where it belonged. Chuckling at the vivid blush on Ami's cheeks, Makoto fumbled with her communicator.

She mouthed the word 'raincheck' and Ami offered her a suggestive eyebrow while straightening her hair studiously. Makoto smiled and shouted into her communicator, "This better be good!"

"Makoto, have you seen Serenity?"

The urgent voice of her commander sobered the Jovian immediately. "No. Not since the morning. Is something-"

"I'll call Ami-chan." Minako said hurriedly.

"There's no need, I'm right here." Ami stepped closer to Makoto's communicator. On the other side of the transmission, Minako seemed at a momentary loss of words, so Ami answered the same question, "I haven't seen her since breakfast, either. Is there a problem?"

"That _is_ the problem." Minako said coolly. "No one has seen her since then."

* * *

"Earth."

"What?" Minako's gaze turned back to Rei and she involuntarily shivered when she easily translated the Martian's body language. Rei's eyes were shut, her voice was distant, her body was rigidly tense. She was tapping into her spiritual abilities.

Slowly, Rei opened her eyes and the troubled darkness that Minako found there frightened her. Paying attention only to Rei, Minako tuned out Makoto and Ami's insistent questioning on the other end of the transmission.

When she spoke, Rei's voice held a chilling certainty.

"Serenity's gone to Earth."

* * *

Even if Mars was the only one on the face of the Moon who could properly translate Venus' body language, it was far from uncomfortable dealing with her nervous wreck of a commander since they had left the Moon Palace not long ago.

Venus had used her clout as leader of the senshi to procure a royal shuttle, the fastest one she knew how to pilot. Ami and Makoto, retaining their civilian personas so as not to arouse suspicion of the guards or those close to the Princess, remained on standby near the shuttle bay, at the ready to take a craft to Earth at a moment's notice if more force was needed to wrestle the Princess out of whatever situation she'd gotten herself into.

Venus had flown the shuttle towards the blue planet at maximum speed, her knuckles white around the controls as they streaked through Earth's atmosphere at a dangerous speed, the island nation they were rushing towards growing larger and larger below them.

"You need to slow down." Mars said calmly. "At this speed, it will be more difficult for me to track her aurally."

Venus snorted her displeasure but slowed the craft, if only minimally. It was all Mars needed, and safe in the knowledge that their shuttle was cloaked against the Earthling's rudimentary detection systems, they descended into a thick stand of trees far from sight of any major buildings.

"Serenity's shuttle." Minako barked as their craft's landing gear creaked and groaned.

Mars opened her eyes to see the Princess' private shuttle tucked securely behind a scraggly evergreen and then turned to scan the flat, grassy plains on the other side of the forested area. "Countryside." She said. "We're far from any towns or cities. This must have been planned."

Venus would not spare a response. She leapt from her seat and disengaged the airlock on the door and Mars had to scramble to catch up.

Mars led the way, though only out of necessity as she was the one with the skills to track their Princess. Venus hovered on Mars' heels, her chain glowing and pulsing in her gloved palms, alert for any signs of danger. Finally, they found their Princess and Venus tensed to run after her.

"Wait." Mars grabbed her commander's wrist and Venus was forced to pause. Shaken out of her fright for the first time since she'd realized that Serenity had gone missing, Venus was forced to observe instead of react.

The two of them spinning slowly in the middle of the grain field as if to the beat of some imaginary music, seeing Serenity safe in Endymion's arms was like being thrown into freezing cold water, and Venus was entirely surprised to feel her anger and fear suddenly melt away.

"A… a secret rendezvous." Venus said incredulously, her relief both raw and obvious in her voice.

Mars crossed her arms over her chest as she watched the dancers. "They're very determined to be with each other, aren't they?"

Venus looked back over her shoulder. Mars' expression was sour, yet she found herself smiling. Rei had known the Venusian in her was going to react badly. Rei had known that she had been fueled not only by the fear for her Princess, but for her own reputation if harm were to have come to Serenity. And Mars had stopped her from making a fool out of herself, even though it was obvious that Mars was just as unhappy with the events as she was.

"Thanks, Rei."

Mars scoffed and Venus had to fight the irresistible urge to pinch Mars' cheeks. To keep herself from angering her second in command, she turned back to Serenity and Endymion and allowed herself to observe. She realized distractedly that perhaps finding and submitting to a love of her own had changed her. Was Serenity not entitled to love too?

A lazy breeze drew a rustle from the limbs of the trees that kept them out of sight - a pulse of life that Venus had long since forgotten since the solar system began tearing first her planet, and then the Moon, into inhospitable rocks - began to soothe her wounded soul. Birds sang in the canopy above her. A forest fern curled against her ankle. Somewhere behind them, a stream babbled its ancient song, and under its gentle influence, the fearful and suspicious words of the secret council of Lunarian royalty she'd overheard hours ago seemed to be carried away like water over smooth stream rocks.

Whispering into her communicator, she hailed the other half of her team, wanting to tell them about this beautiful planet that was so alive, but knowing that they'd all see it together the next morning.

"Mercury, Jupiter, stand down. The situation is under control."

Ami and Makoto expressed their relief and Venus cut the transmission. Mars leveled amused eyes on her commander.

"Now what?" she asked quietly. "I'm glad she's not in danger, but this still shouldn't be permitted."

Venus shrugged. "But aren't we supposed to be fostering relations between the Moon and the Earth? Since we know she's safe, I don't see the problem."

"Well, isn't that just very one-eighty of you?" Mars bristled, but it was obvious that she wasn't really mad. "The Princess just waltzed right out of the Palace and came to the Earth without telling anyone and _now _you don't see a problem?"

"I wish she would have told us." Venus had fallen serious for that moment, but quickly snapped out of it with a mischievous half-smirk on her lips. "Stop being such a stick in the mud, Mars."

Mars' left eye twitched and her brow furrowed and Venus couldn't help but want to smile. She was entirely aware and just as smug of her ability to placate and switch back and forth between topics. There was that urge to pinch Mars' cheek again…

"I am _not_ a stick in the mud." The crimson warrior said contritely.

Venus slowly swiveled her head back to level her gaze at her subordinate, offering a look that seemed to say, 'name _one_ time when you _weren't_ the biggest bore I've ever met.'

"'Ch!" Mars spat and studiously stuck her nose in the air.

Venus chuckled. "Just shut up and keep an eye on Serenity. That's our job, remember? Not telling her what she can and can't do. We're her protectors. Not her mother or her advisors."

Mars scowled but she nodded her head at her leader's instruction. But as she turned back towards Serenity and Endymion, she knew exactly who it was she was keeping an eye on. And it wasn't the Princess of the Moon. It was the Princess of Venus.

* * *

"Master! Where are you?"

As the Prince and the Princess continued to dance together in the grain field, a familiar voice sliced through the easy atmosphere. Venus quickly identified it as belonging to the youngest shitennou. Her body tensed and she saw the panicked looks on Serenity and Endymion's faces.

"Jadeite." Mars spat quietly, her eyes tightly shut as she detected his aura. "He's heading this way. We don't have much time."

Venus' fists tightened and she marched out from beneath the forest's edge, rushing towards her charge. Endymion's eyes widened, unsure whether to be relieved or even more cautious of the number of unexpected guests, especially considering the crimson warrior who chased after her commander.

"Give the Princess to me." Venus demanded as she neared. "You weren't expecting an interruption from any of us, were you?"

Endymion looked from Venus to Serenity to the rise at the top of the hill.

"Endymion." Serenity whimpered, her lower lip trembling as she looked between her lover and her senshi.

He cupped her cheek in his hand. "Go with your senshi, Serenity. I feel they will be far more forgiving of you than my shitennou would be of me if they are to find you here." Endymion gently urged Serenity towards her guardians and she frowned her displeasure.

"We'll see each other tomorrow, won't we?" He asked to placate her. "Don't react badly now and jeopardize that."

Serenity pouted but slid into Venus' waiting arms. "Don't talk to me as if I'm a child." She chided him.

"Then don't act like one." Endymion smirked teasingly and laid a quick peck on the Princess' cheek. He looked at Venus sheepishly. "I hope you don't think that she and I-"

Venus held her free hand up, palm out. "It's not my place to judge you, Endymion," she smiled half-heartedly, "it's only to know where my Princess is at any given time."

The Terran Prince scratched at the back of his head, the slightest of blushes tinting his pale cheeks pink. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Venus said sharply. "Just get going before your guardians find us. We'll make our escape after you lead them away."

Endymion nodded. "Understood." After a lingering kiss to Serenity's cheek, he took off at a full sprint.

Venus didn't wait for him to crest over the rise before she was ushering Serenity back to the forest, the Princess unresponsive and shuffling her feet as though they didn't belong to her body.

* * *

The return of two royal shuttles; the Princess' piloted by Venus, and the other piloted by Mars and containing the Princess, had been sure to raise some eyebrows, but once they had landed, Venus had explained away the situation as only she could. Serenity had remained cold and silent, even during the duration of their walk back to her quarters, where Venus made sure that she would promptly ready herself for bed.

And after ensuring the security of the Princess, Venus and Mars had detransformed and retreated to the antechamber that led to the senshi's private wing. And it was only then that Minako realized that she had not put much thought into Rei's quiet stillness that mirrored Serenity's so closely.

Minako threw herself into the corner of a couch and promptly contacted Artemis to ensure that plans for their trip to the Earth had been finalized in her absence. As she talked, she watched Rei where she stood with her back turned to her, the Martian's gaze lingering somewhere outside the window. She could have been looking down at the tent cities, or out across the dry sea of Tranquility, or even to the peaks of Montes Haemus. Minako, however, had the distinct feeling that Rei wasn't really looking at anything at all.

"Minako? Minako, are you listening to me?" Artemis voice where it buzzed through her communicator shook Venus back to attention. "I was just telling you that I've briefed Mercury and Jupiter on our plans for your departure tomorrow."

"Thanks." Minako tried to focus. "Thanks, Artemis."

"Is there anything else, Minako?"

Despite her distraction, the Venusian actually gave the question some thought. "What about Endymion's diplomats that he left behind? Shouldn't we take the remaining Terrans back to Earth with us?"

"They've already left."

"What?" Minako shifted until she was sitting on the very edge of the couch. "When? Why wasn't I informed?"

"You were a bit busy with another… mission this afternoon." Artemis said flatly. "Beryl led the humans back to Earth herself, early this afternoon."

"Huh." It was unlike Minako to be out of the loop, and she bore an awkward expression. "I wonder what made them advance their time table."

Artemis offered a sound of non-committal. "That, I don't know. But I do know that a lot of people are glad they're gone."

Minako shuddered as she remembered the dissent she'd heard from the Lunarian royalty she'd happened upon in the garden. She expressed her understanding to Artemis and ended their transmission, and then she spent a long time staring at Rei's still form until she could no longer handle the strained silence.

"Why are you so quiet, Rei?"

Her dark eyes haunted, Rei slowly looked over her shoulder. "There was a light in her eyes."

Again, Minako shuddered, this time at the Martian's cryptic words. "What?"

"On the way back from Earth," Mars clarified, "there was a light in Serenity's eyes."

"A light?"

Rei hugged herself, her arms tight across her chest. "It reminded me of the youma."

* * *

Preview, Chapter 20: Earth for Lunarian Consumption

"According to the Lunarian calendar, this writing is over one thousand years old." She looked up. "This building isn't more than three hundred. How is this information even down here?"

"You will find your answer when you see what the other shelves hold."

Beryl spent several minutes checking the next rows of books; one for each of the solar system's planets. She put down the tablet for Venus and looked back up, accustomed to the fruitless gesture despite the fact that Metallia had no visible manifestation. "What about Earth?"

"It is one row over."

Beryl's hands shook as she approached a wide bank of shelves. "There's only one volume here."

"Only one was ever written for Earth."

The human snatched the glass plate from the dusty shelf. It came alive at her touch. Her voice was a hoarse whisper when she read its title.

"Earth for Lunarian Consumption."

Metallia cackled; a raspy sound devoid of any emotion.


	20. Chapter 20

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 20: Earth for Lunarian Consumption  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

On a slow descent from the heavens above, Serenity and her senshi could fully admire the sprawling stone structure of the Edo Palace and the many acres of manicured grasses, small stands of forest, and clear, blue ponds that were held within its stone walls.

On a concrete pad designed for a much larger craft, they landed their shuttle behind the Palace proper. The women - dazed and in awe of a planet so alive as they descended the metal steps - were each caught up in their own turbulent emotions as they felt fresh, green grass beneath their feet.

Makoto whistled low, her eyes wide open in astonishment of the trees and grass and flowers the likes of which she hadn't seen since the earliest memories of her childhood deep in the Jovian rainforests.

Ami was quick to greet the shitennou, and wasted no time in asking questions about this strange new world she'd never seen but had furiously studied.

Minako smiled widely, glad to be back to the planet she'd admired the day before, and she animatedly greeted her equals, even going so far as to shake hands with Kunzite and to hug Zoicite.

Rei stood stiffly; quiet and cautious.

And with her guardians otherwise distracted, Serenity ran directly into Endymion's arms.

After being politely received by the shitennou, the off-worlders bowed deeply to the reception of royal Earthlings who had come to meet their acquaintance, and an untold amount of time was spent on introductions between people who very obviously were weary of one another. It did not go unnoticed by the Terrans that the Lunarian diplomats coveted the planet Earth.

As the Princess and her senshi were finally led around the grounds of the Palace while their luggage was being delivered to their rooms, Minako was only able to wrench her gaze from the vibrant display of life in all its forms for a mere moment. Only one thing seemed more important.

"Relax," she whispered, so quietly that only the woman who stood closely at her side could hear.

Still, it wasn't until Rei felt the fleeting touch of Minako's fingertips across her palm that she finally slumped her shoulders and breathed deeply, shaking herself from whatever meditative trance she'd lapsed into.

Pleased, Minako nodded, and she and Rei shared a brief, knowing glance that spoke volumes without saying a single word. Rei wasn't the only one worried about leaving the Moon Palace without their strength to protect the citizens against youma attacks if one should occur in their absence. Queen Serenity had insisted that all of the senshi were to travel with the Princess, and because their trip to Earth was only due to last five short days, they were instructed not to worry about the youma. It was also uncomfortable for both the leader of the senshi and her second in command to be on unfamiliar territory in their civilian personas. Although they had been right to assume that their enhanced powers would have put the Terrans on edge, both of them longed for that added layer of security despite the fact that their senshi strength was only so far away as their own fingertips.

"The Edo Palace is the only place on Earth that seamlessly incorporates the cultures of all our major countries." The young Jadeite seemed to have a flair for history as well as guiding tours, and it was he that led the others along the finely manicured pathways around the Palace.

Ami strolled next to him, barely unable to contain her interest as she pointed out structural details, noting Victorian gardens that blended with the simplicity of Japanese Zen design, Moroccan pillows that offered comfort to Greek stone benches, and European castle design that utilized Roman technologies.

The women were soon overwhelmed by the sights and smells of the natural world so unlike their barren and dusty satellite, and for all but Makoto, they were glad to be ushered indoors at the peak of the afternoon's heat, although even the Jovian was soon appeased by the abundance of variety that Terran food selections had to offer.

Serenity, who had only released her hold on Endymion long enough to eat, had been quick to ask for chocolate chip cookies; those delectable treats that had been sent to the Moon as part of a good will package long ago. The Princess' desires had been fulfilled and exceeded, and after their meal, the women were offered desserts which could have rivaled even the finest of Venusian culinary decadence.

Afterwards, the Prince and his shitennou, having been overwhelmed by the peoples and technologies of their neighbors on the Moon during their first meeting understood the assault on the senses that the Princess and her guardians were experiencing, and they were all to eager to agree to retire early for the day.

As the Prince ushered Serenity back to his private chambers, uncontested by the senshi only at the Queen's prior insistence, Kunzite and Zoicite led the senshi to their private guest quarters nearby.

Zoicite and Minako walked side by side behind the leader of the shitennou, doubtlessly discussing the security of their charges. Zoicite sent frequent glances behind him, mindful of the Martian, and he was surprised by Rei's amount of restraint in regards to her possession over Minako. Behind Rei, exhausted by the wealth of knowledge and sleepy from the effects of wine, Ami was discreetly supported by Makoto.

They stopped in a cavernous antechamber that narrowed towards the back of the room, a hallway there leading to a row of doors on either side. A stark contrast to the Moon Palace, here the ceilings were low, the walls dark and the floors rough, all of these attributes overcompensated by thick rugs, richly colored tapestries, and too much furniture.

Zoicite gestured grandly towards the rear of the room. "Our guest rooms are on the main floor to allow for balconies with access to gardens and the grounds beyond. Although our comforts might not meet those of the Moon Palace, we hope you find our accommodations suitable. Four rooms have been prepared-"

"We'll only need three." Minako said.

Zoicite's raised a delicate eyebrow. Logically, he looked towards the Mercurian who was depending more and more on her Jovian comrade for support as the source of needing one less room, and he was surprised when Minako pulled his attention back to her instead.

"Rei and I will be sharing a room." Minako could barely repress a smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth.

Zoicite crossed his arms over his chest, playful only because his commander was waiting out in the hallway, and because the Martian – her own arms crossed and her body turned away pointedly – seemed to be paying him no mind. "But at the Martian festival-"

Minako's grin got the best of her and she nearly beamed from ear to ear. "That was then. This is now."

Finally, Rei's nonchalance failed her, and she couldn't keep the crimson touches of a blush from her cheeks as she was playfully pushed by her commander into one of the rooms prepared for them.

* * *

Aren't you going to put your clothes away?"

Rei pulled her gaze from the view of the garden, and beyond that, the view of a pond and tree line on the other side of their balcony.

"No." She replied simply. It wasn't only the fact that her normal dress of plain trousers and simple shirts were fine where they were already neatly folded in her suitcase, but she suspected that their short trip may be even shorter than the five days that had been planned.

But as Minako hung the last of her clothes in the small closet and came to stand next to Rei, the Venusian's eyes softening as she surveyed the planet she'd so come to admire, Rei came to the conclusion that she didn't want to worry her commander based solely on her suspicions and clouded senses that seemed somehow muddled in this strange place.

The moment passed anyway, and in the dying light of evening, Minako homed in on a smoke stack far in the distance near the mountains that formed the spine of the island nation. She cursed softly under her breath. "All the life they have here and they take it for granted. Honestly, they couldn't figure out a way to harness the sun's energy?"

Rei chuckled slightly. "We're talking about _humans_ here."

Minako snorted, her arms crossed. "If Makoto realizes they're burning fossil fuels on the one planet that still has a chance in this solar system, she'll flip out."

"'Ch. I wouldn't worry about that. Makoto's not much brighter than the humans."

"Rei!"

The two women looked at one another and could only laugh because it was so glaringly obvious that Rei's flat statement had been said with good nature, and that the previous malice the Martian and the Jovian held for one another had devolved into a make shift form of camaraderie.

"I think it's Ami-chan we have to worry about." Rei said thoughtfully. "She'd be quick not only to point it out, but to analyze the effects of pollution on plant and animal life, pissing off not only Makoto, but the Earthlings."

This thought pushed Minako onto another tangent and she looked at Rei with a glimmer of mischief and suspicion. "Speaking of Ami-chan and Makoto, something's changed between those two."

"Uh huh." Rei replied, once again distant.

Minako tore her gaze from the sparkling pond that seemed to call to her, but when she spun on her subordinate and noticed Rei's tense shoulders and the far-away look in her dark eyes, she sighed.

"Will nothing help you relax?" Minako wasn't angry, only concerned, and she let the soft touch of her fingers on Rei's cheek convey the emotions that words could never seem to explain for either of them.

Despite that gentle concern, Rei's eyes remained haunted. "Something doesn't feel right."

Minako stiffened. Her hand fell away and she unconsciously stood taller, nearly matching Rei's height. "Are your senses alerting you to danger?"

"No." Rei looked away. "They aren't." It was the truth, but somehow, she still managed to feel like she was lying. Minako ran the backs of her fingers along Rei's cheek again, and this time, Rei leaned into the strength that lay behind that gentle touch.

"They say no news is good news, don't they?" Minako tempered a chiding voice with a small smile. "If you can't sense anything, maybe that's a good thing."

"Maybe." Rei couldn't manage to convince herself, let alone her commander, so she stopped trying. "I thought it was just this planet, but the more I think about it, I haven't been able to sense much of anything since I saw that light in Serenity's eyes yesterday."

"Rei," Minako crossed her arms over her chest, "you still haven't told me what that means."

"I don't know what it _should_ mean."

A trace of bitterness laced Rei's voice and the two women fell into a long moment of quiet until Minako could no longer stand the silence. With her ease of changing topics, she flipped her hair over her shoulder and pressed herself tightly against Rei's side.

"That must be one thing you like about this place." Minako stared out into the inky blackness of night. "How long has it been since you've seen the full darkness of night?" She slipped an arm around Rei's waist and finally she felt the other woman exhale and return the favor.

"Far too long." Rei answered quietly.

"Enjoy the night with me, Rei. What can I do to get you to come back to me? You seem so far away."

Her lover's plea shook her from her worries and Rei relented. "I guess I'm uncomfortable that one of the four of us isn't standing guard near the Princess. Queen's orders or not."

"You think I'm not?" Minako drew away, her gaze piercing and hurt. "You think I'm pleased with the way Queen Serenity uses her daughter to show our trust in the Earthlings?"

Rei took a step forward, her hands held open in a placating gesture. "Minako…"

The Venusian sighed. She clenched her fists and snorted. Her voice was quiet and contrite. "If it makes you feel any better, I've had Ami rig up a detection field around Serenity that will alert us if anyone other than Endymion gets near her."

Rei smiled softly. "You really do think of everything, don't you." And despite her arched eyebrow, her statement was not a question, but a quiet admiration.

"As a matter of fact, yes, I do."

Rei smiled at Minako's cocky attitude and Minako grinned. "Now, that's exactly what I want to see." She nearly purred as she claimed the small amount of distance that separated them. "Now, can't we just pretend like we're normal people out on a vacation? Just you and me?"

Rei's arms slipped around Minako, but she frowned. "Vacation?"

Minako's expression fell flat. "Don't tell me you've never been on one."

"I've never been on one."

Minako shrugged. "Well, Earth's no Venusian pleasure city, but it'll have to do."

Rei smiled; a small but honest gesture, and she grabbed Minako by the hips and pulled her even closer.

* * *

Off to the side of the Prince's private garden, pressed against a pillar designed entirely for aesthetic purposes - for the slab of carved marble supported nothing but blue sky - Beryl held her breath for longer than she imagined she could.

To tell herself that she hadn't meant to spy on Endymion and Serenity would be to blatantly lie. She did not, however, expect to bear witness to such an intimate display of affection between the two, especially so late in the morning for such activities. As the Princess of the Moon and the Prince of the Earth shared a deep kiss in the middle of the English garden, Beryl could do nothing but stew in the anger and hurt she'd only set herself up for.

She peered around the pillar again, not because she wanted the knife in her chest to be twisted yet again, but because she wanted to make sure they were thoroughly distracted before she dared risk her hiding spot by retreating.

The knife was brutally twisted when she watched Endymion pull Serenity closer to him, nearly lifting the small woman off her feet in his fervor, and that was when Beryl heard the voice.

"_Beryl…"_

The aide froze as though she'd been submerged in frigid waters. _'Metallia?'_ She asked herself.

"_Yessssss."_

Despite the many different directions she was pulled in, Beryl's analytic nature managed to bring forward the most important question. _'But how can you be here on Earth?'_

"_I am powerful enough to contact you at this moment. That is all you need to know. I am here to give you direction."_

The voice was evasive and Beryl could tell she was being given a run-around. _'I understand.'_ The human had a good sense for self preservation and quickly appeased Metallia. _'Tell me what it is I should do.'_

Beryl sensed the malevolent being wander away from her and she knew that she was meant to follow. Before she left, she afforded one last longing look to the lip-locked couple, her bottom lip caught between her teeth, and she wished desperately that she could be the one in Serenity's place.

"_I will give him to you as I have promised."_ Metallia's voice faded as the being's presence continued on its mysterious path. _"But first you will follow me."_

Beryl's fists clenched against the pillar. With tears filling her eyes, she pushed herself away and followed.

* * *

It was a long walk through the palace proper, out the main bridge that crossed over a narrow river, and into the city that lay crowded on the other side of the palace walls. Beryl did not question where Metallia was leading her, and only followed; her body moving in a straight line as the citizens had to weave and dodge around her unwavering form. That, at least, was normal for Beryl. Most people widely avoided her. Partly it was the reputation she bore as an occultist, partly it was due to her awkward nature. Either way, she didn't much care.

After some time, she realized she was ascending a steep flight of stone steps and looked up to the façade of an old building she knew well. "The Old Library?"

"_Follow."_

Beryl hurried forward but frowned in confusion. "_I know this place like the back of my hand. What would you show me here that I have yet to study?'_

"_Have you seen its basement, human?"_

'_The basement?'_

"_Few left know of its existence. You will understand when you see."_

Beryl floated past the few patrons that occupied the rows of books, zig zagging through the maze of shelves until she found a small door at the back of the building, partially covered by a hanging tapestry. She tried the handle.

'_It's locked.'_ She was unaccustomed to Metallia's sudden silence and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. _'Metallia?'_

Beryl almost didn't hear the quiet sound; the eerie shift of a pile of ashes falling on its side.

"_The door is open."_

Beryl frowned, but when she tried the old brass handle a second time, it turned when she applied enough pressure, grinding through what felt like centuries of dust.

The door led to a darkened flight of steps that led straight down at a steep angle. The air that rushed forward; cold and damp and clammy, made Beryl break out in a cold sweat.

"_What are you waiting for."_

It wasn't a question - Metallia didn't seem the questioning type. Beryl forced herself down to the first step and shut the door behind her. She moved slowly, carefully feeling for each step in the inky blackness. She counted nineteen before she couldn't feel any more steps, and knew she'd found the bottom.

"_Step forward."_

Beryl obeyed and the moment she did, the chamber was instantly filled with a shining, white light as brilliant as natural sunlight. The human spun in a full circle, fearful that she'd fallen prey to some form of trap.

"_You are alone. It is only a motion sensor. The light is old Lunarian technology."_

"Lunarian technology? On Earth?"

"_Look around you."_

Beryl took a deep, calming breath, and allowed her observant and analytical nature to take over. The stone room was large and cavernous and boasted a high ceiling. Like the old library above, this room held rows of shelves, but these did not house books. Beryl rushed forward, her fingers reaching out greedily to the neatly filed volumes of electronic files.

"This is Moon technology." Beryl's voice was loud in the still place. She pulled a random file from its shelf and with the sleeve of her shirt, she wiped a thick layer of dust off the plate glass screen. At her touch, the tablet – the size of a hardbound book only not as wide – came to life. The transparent title read: 'Terraforming Mars for Lunarian Life.' Another read: 'Olympic Mons as a Viable Power Source', and another read: 'Freezing Martian Water at its Poles for Water Conservation'.

She slid the last Martian volume back into its place hurriedly, moved a row over, and grabbed another at random.

"The Effects of Lunarian Crystal Energy on Mercury's Lakes." Her voice was hoarse and distant, and she pulled another off the same shelf. "Underground Cities During Mercury's Summer."

She walked one row over and pulled out another file. "Taming Jovian Jungles for Lunarian Habitats."

She slammed the file down on the shelf. "This must be some kind of joke!" She spoke more to herself, though she registered Metallia's discordant laugh. "This place would be older than the library above it!"

"_It is._ Metallia said flatly. _"The dates on the files tell the truth."_

Beryl picked up the closest tablet – 'Flora and Fauna of Jupiter' - touched its screen, and scrolled through the first pages. Her hands trembled slightly.

"10,306." Beryl blanched white.

"_Yessss."_

"According to the Lunarian calendar, this writing is over four thousand years old." She looked up. "This building isn't more than three hundred. How is this information even _down_ here?"

"_You will find your answer when you see what the other shelves hold."_

Beryl spent several minutes checking the next rows of books; one for each of the solar system's planets. She put down a tablet for Venus and looked back up, accustomed to the fruitless gesture despite the fact that Metallia had no visible manifestation. "What about Earth?"

"_It is one row over."_

Beryl's hands shook as she approached a wide bank of shelves. "There's only one volume here."

"_Only one was ever written for Earth."_

The human snatched the glass plate from the dusty shelf. It came alive at her touch. Her voice was a hoarse whisper when she read its title.

"Earth for Lunarian Consumption."

Metallia cackled; a raspy sound devoid of any emotion.

* * *

The fact that their normally sharp and alert strong-willed Martian was bleary-eyed and moving a little slower than normal was the highlight of the morning for Makoto, who smiled widely.

"Well," she said smugly, her voice pulling Ami's attention over the edge of a hardbound book for only the slightest of moments, "it's nearly midday and you don't seem well rested at all."

"Screw off." Rei's words were sharp but her tone wasn't, and she threw herself bodily next to Makoto onto one of the antechamber's overstuffed couches. She leaned back and threw her forearm over her eyes, more for function than form, although the act was suitably dramatic.

"Stupid excursion." Rei grumbled. Traveling into the city to spend the day immersed in Terran culture certainly didn't strike her fancy, and it had exhauster her to feign interest in the wares and customs of a people that seemed even more barbaric to her than the Jovians.

"Jet-lag?" Makoto asked leadingly.

"Yeah," Rei snorted. "Something like that."

Makoto chuckled. "I've gotta tell you, Rei. Minako-san seems a lot happier since the two of you figured out… whatever it is you two've got going on."

Where once, she might have decked the Jovian for being so presumptuous, Rei only smiled enigmatically as she let her arm drop back down to her side.

Makoto laced her hands behind her head and leaned back. "So. Tell me about Venusians. I've never been with one."

After a moment's consideration, Rei replied, "They're excitable, impulsive, and surprisingly thoughtful." Her words were kind, but her voice carried a sharp edge that her comrade knew enough to understand was only for show.

Makoto leaned forward with a wide grin. "And if you added 'in bed' to the end of each of those nouns?"

"Makoto!" Ami closed her book, the heavy volume slamming shut. "You shouldn't ask questions like that!" The Mercurian shifted in her seat, her blush deepening, and looked away. "Besides, you mean _verbs_, not nouns."

Rei snorted, but a small smile reached through to her lips. She winked at Makoto. "Either way, the meaning wouldn't change a bit."

Makoto laughed and rested a hand on Rei's shoulder. "You're different, Rei." She said boldly.

"And so are the two of you." Rei said of her two comrades good-naturedly. "Perhaps I could be asking the two of you the same questions."

The Jovian backpedaled. "It's not like that." After looking over at a fidgeting Ami, Makoto cracked a small grin. "At least not yet. Ami-chan's still trying to figure things out. I'm giving her all the time she needs." She paused, considering. "You didn't-"

"No." Rei said. "Minako guessed as much about you two. You know how in tune she is to things of that nature."

"What am I in tune to?" Minako approached from the door of the bedroom she'd shared with Rei, running her fingers through still-damp hair and looking every bit as tired as her partner.

"Absolutely everything, all-knowing one." Rei said dryly. With a roll of her eyes, she hopped to her feet and patted at the front of her trousers dismissively. "Now that you're ready, your highness, perhaps we shouldn't keep Serenity and Endymion waiting."

Makoto groaned, but rose to her feet. "I suspect the two of them are in much the same state as you two."

"Eh?" Minako asked, her fingers catching on a small knot in her hair. "And what state is that?" She turned to find Rei already walking away from the guest wing, her head held high and an enigmatic smile on her lips.

"Hey!" Minako called, "what did I miss? Hey! Wait up, you!"

* * *

"_Have you completed your task?"_

The cold edge of Metallia's voice sliced through Beryl's concentration and she pushed the 'Earth for Lunarian Consumption' tablet away from her. The volume had been large and had started with an account of the planet, its chemical composition, and other scientific attributes. She had glazed over this subject. It was obvious that Earth had been perfectly suitable for Lunarian life. The other accounts were of more interest; the Lunarians had migrated and had settled on the third rock from the sun more some millennia ago, at the same time the Lunarians began to colonize the other planets, spreading their influence across the solar system.

But as far as Beryl could tell, it was those who had settled on Earth who thought to dissent, who had wanted to be their own kingdom, and when the Queen of the Moon Kingdom had denied their movement and the Earthians had expressed their displeasure at being held under their Queen's thumb. It was then that their Lunarian powers had been stripped of them. No longer supported by the royal family, they had lost their long life spans and their ability to understand the land that they had adopted as their own. The cast out Lunarians eventually became humans, and without the continued support of their motherland, they became little more than nomadic hunter-gatherers until new generations had forged a new path for their people, having forgotten their cousins on the Moon and in turn, having been abandoned by them.

The details were sketchy. The history had been maintained as if from a subjective source, independent from either side, and the history ended all together when the humans had finally integrated into a scientific age. The last entry was a recording of a myth of human relation to a long lost people on the Moon, a myth that told of total annihilation if their kinds were to reunite, nearly a fairy tale about a Prince and a Princess and an ill-fated love that fit all too well given the circumstances…

"_Beryl."_

The human sighed and rested her forehand in her head. "These texts could be interpreted in many different ways." She looked up and arched an eyebrow. "In the wrong hands, a certain spin could shed a negative light on the Lunarians."

"_It would greatly aid the dissent you have already placed in the minds of your peers, those that are already fostering and spreading their mistrust. Tell me how you would use this information to your advantage."_

Beryl's neutral expression slid into a languid smile. Her voice dripped with a sense of tacked-on superiority. "Well, it's entirely clear that the Lunarians _stole_ our powers from us just because we dared to think differently, because our plans did not align with their Queen's. Without other powers to strip from us, how would they control us now that we've unknowingly invited them back into our lives? In their need, given their lack of resources, they would take our planet from us and enslave us to keep us in line."

Beryl's smile spread into a grin. "After all, why else would they have not come clean about our shared history when we made first contact?"

She chuckled then, and examined the tablet before her for a moment before speaking. "The last account, the one that reads like a fairytale, will greatly influence the people. A Prince of the Earth and a Princess of the Moon with an ill-fated love that would bring destruction to both their lands; a Princess that could summon monsters, a war in which many lives are lost." She looked up with a smile. "It is very fitting for a myth. Almost," her gaze grew distant, "almost _too_ coincidental."

"_Yessss." _Metallia's flat voice was incapable of expressing her pleasure with the human. _"You must tell your Prince of these findings."_

"Endymion?" Beryl's voice slipped into a different place and her expression fell; wounded and vulnerable. "He is spending the day with Serenity and her guardians."

"_I know."_

"You do?" Pulled from her thoughts, Beryl looked up suspiciously.

Metallia did not address the human's question. _"First, you will spread the word to others like you__; those that are weak of heart and eager to hate that which they don't understand. Then, you will tell your Prince."_

Beryl paused, still stuck on her previous train of thought.

"_Have you understood me, human?"_

"Yes."

And as soon as she had responded, Metallia's presence vanished. And in the sudden loss of the malevolent being, Beryl could only wonder where it was that Metallia returned to when she disappeared.

* * *

Her arms crossed, her body tense, Rei stood at the edge of the marketplace; an open aired fair not unlike those that lined the streets of the cities that bordered the Moon Palace, and it was just as packed full of people. But here, on this magical planet that still supported life, the sky was blue and the air was thick and sweet. A slight breeze pulled at Rei's long hair. A child; brightly dressed and laughing loudly bumped into the Martian, apologized, and ran on her way. Rei did not respond, did not even budge.

Her eyes were riveted on her Princess and Endymion several meters away. The Prince seemed to be repaying a favor and the two stood at the sparkling stall of a jewelry vendor. With great care, Endymion slipped a pink pendant that dangled from a silver chain, over Serenity's head. The Princess smiled and laughed, fingering the delicate heart-shaped jewel, nearly crossing her eyes in order to see it as she pulled it away from her neck.

"Stop worrying."

Her commander's voice did not cause Rei to shift her gaze, did not cause her to relax in the slightest, and Minako sighed her frustration. Minako sidled closer, pressing her shoulder to her subordinate's, her eyes also on their Princess to defer her interest in the Martian.

"Makoto-san and Ami-chan are within range. They'll protect her if anyone gets close enough. Those were the assignments, and-"

Rei shook her head. Minako instantly quieted; the motion was so slight that it almost went unnoticed, and she understood its subtle meaning. Still looking straight ahead, the smallest of maneuvers had Rei's index finger brushing along Minako's palm, but this wasn't an intimate gesture, and the leader of the senshi immediately honed her hearing in the direction that Rei had indicated.

Suspicion and unrest seemed to hold a heavier weight than most conversation and from somewhere in the milling crowd behind them, the distinct tones of hushed and conspiratorial voices were easily picked out from the lighthearted and general chatter.

* * *

"I've heard that the Lunarians can summon monsters."

"No!"

"Nasty monsters that can suck the life from a person like this-"

"Stop it, that's scary!"

"How could that even be possible? They look just like us and _we_ can't summon monsters."

"I've heard that they _are_ just like us. Or, _we're_ just like them."

"What?"

"I have it on good authority that Earthlings are some kind of distant cousins to the Lunarians. It was just found in some kind of ancient text."

"How do you know all this?"

"Others are talking. People are meeting down at the Old Library. I can show you if you'll follow me."

* * *

Those suspicious voices faded into the crowd and disappeared altogether, and finally, Rei and Minako spun, their gazes already following the nondescript figures that threaded their way through the thick crowds.

"We can't allow this." Rei stood to her full height, her fists clenched and her eyes narrowed.

At the first hint of the crimson glow she knew all too well, Minako seized Rei's forearm and hissed, "You will _not_ transform, Mars."

Rei paused. The crimson glow was halted before it could be seen by the humans. She turned to the scolding expression of her commander who spoke as quietly as she could through her own anger and concern.

"We can not leave our Princess, and we can not follow those humans without giving ourselves away. _And_ we can not reveal our senshi personas. Not unless there's an emergency."

"It will come to that." Rei growled.

"Then so be it." Minako increased the pressure on Rei's forearm, refusing to be frightened by the distant look in Rei's eyes that told her more than she wanted to know. "You can't follow them. Those are your orders, whether _I_ like them or not."

The two women matched wills for a long moment. It was only the excited and joyous voice of the Princess that made them pull away from one another.

"Come on, you two! Endymion's going to take us for…" she paused, looking to the Prince, who whispered in her ear. She brightened. "Ice cream!"

Rei watched Minako's plastic smile pull her lips in the right direction, and she was powerless but to follow her commander.

* * *

Preview, Chapter 21: Holder of the Ginzuishou

"Tell me, Endymion, have you heard the rumors about your friends on the Moon?"

"What rumors, Beryl?" The Prince's voice was ice cold, and he clung to Serenity that might tighter.

Beryl laughed quietly and the sound seemed out of place despite the easy atmosphere. A small, wooden boat drifted past, its two passengers absorbed in one another and nothing else.

"Your people are talking about our Lunarian ancestry and the terrible monsters that our cousins on the Moon can summon."

"Cousins? Monsters?" Endymion's voice was accusatory. "I don't know what kind of joke you're aiming for, but I don't find its humor."

"I find it quite humorous, Endymion." Beryl's smile was replaced with a longing frown. "Why don't you ask your Lunarian Trophy about the monsters that have been plaguing her fine kingdom?"

Serenity stepped away from Endymion's protective hold and stood at his side. She was not frightened of Beryl, though confusion was evident on her fine features. "I don't know anything about either of those accusations, and I most certainly would have heard about _monsters_ attacking my people!"

"You will not fool me with your false innocence, Princess, and I will not allow you to fool Endymion, either." Beryl took another step closer, her fingers curling into claws at her side.


	21. Chapter 21

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 21: Holder of the Ginzuishou  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Rei followed Minako into their guest quarters and slammed the door behind her. The fact that Minako did not respond to the violent gesture only annoyed her that much more. The Venusian flipped on the lights to illuminate the night-darkened room and then strode across the space, pulling her hair out of its bun before collapsing face first on the bed.

Rei stewed in her anger; had been stewing all day long as each tedious tourist activity had failed to distract her from the small bit of dangerous gossip they'd overheard. First it had been ice cream, then, a cinema show, and lastly, a dinner with several other Terran leaders that lasted entirely too long until they had finally been released for the night.

Rei had reached her breaking point. Fuming, she stomped towards the bed and paced at its side rigidly. "We have to _do_ something." She growled.

Minako lie silent for a long moment before rolling onto her back. With her feet where they hung off the bed's edge, she trapped the pacing Martian, forcing Rei to stand still.

"We've been over this already, Mars."

Rei did not take the hint, nor register the name that Minako reserved for either her senshi persona or for times when she was angry with her.

"Those humans knew about our shared ancestry, but they also knew about the _youma_," Rei barked. "Beryl could be behind this. She stayed back at the palace long enough to have seen them."

Minako sat up. Her gaze was piercing, though her voice remained calm. "Don't you think that thought crossed my mind? I wouldn't doubt Beryl's involvement."

"How can you be so cool about this!"

"I'm your leader for a reason, Mars!" This time, Minako's voice carried a sharp edge, one that seemed to knock the Martian down several notches.

Minako allowed her words to sink in for a long moment and then she sighed, her shoulders slumped. "Sometimes, diplomacy and caution must be used before retaliation and reaction. We've taken all the precautions allowed of us, and even some that weren't. _If_ this gossip we overheard is anything more than just that, then Ami-chan's equipment will let us know if anyone gets too close to the Princess. Then, and only then, we can react as _I_ see fit. Do you understand?"

They might have once argued the point long into the night, but this was just one other aspect of Minako that Rei could fully admire, an aspect that went beyond the plastic masks that she'd seen Minako wear - the unwavering leader who stood behind her decision when she knew she was in the right, even if she did want to act otherwise, and Rei grudgingly nodded her approval.

"There we go." With an ease that only a Venusian could possess, the argument found its end when Minako smiled and when Rei sighed deeply, Minako was quick to catch Rei's hands and hold them loosely.

"Besides," Minako cracked a grin, "we can sleep lightly tonight, if you'd like. You know… so we can listen for trouble."

Despite her lingering sense of unease, Minako's tactic had worked and Rei couldn't help but return that smirk. "You _are_ trouble." Rei grumbled.

Minako chuckled, a wicked mischief lacing her voice. "You weren't saying that last night," She abandoned Rei's hands in favor of the rise of the Martian's hips.

"Hn." Rei looked smug. One hand threaded through Minako's dark hair, her fingers digging into the back of Minako's neck near her hairline, drawing an appreciative growl from the Venusian. "As I recall, you weren't capable of coherent speech much at all last night."

Minako arched an eyebrow at the saucy retort, always able to appreciate Rei's ease of matching wits with her. She pulled Rei closer, her arms cinching together around Rei's waist, needing to crane her head sharply to be able to look up to see her face.

"Ne," she asked, "have you ever been skinny dipping?"

"Skinny _what_?"

Minako released a long-suffering sigh. "Swim naked, you social dropout."

"You know I hate it when you completely switch topics like that." Rei tensed in Minako's arms and her fingers ceased their restless teasing of Minako's hairline. Minako knew she needed to reel her in before she got too aggravated with her.

"No you don't. You _love_ it." Minako tempered her teasing by slipping her fingers under the hem of Rei's shirt, allowing her nails to drift lightly over the small of Rei's back. "Besides, I thought we were done with our previous conversation. Now, answer the question."

"No." Rei grumbled, only slightly irritated. "I've never been _skinny dipping_. What you described sounds like a bath, to me."

Minako grinned unapologetically. "Oh no, it's _much_ more enjoyable than that."

"Oh?" Rei arched an eyebrow. "How so?"

"How so?" Minako repeated coyly, and then expertly released the clasp at the back of Rei's bra with a swift efficiency. "Only in the same way Venusians make _everything_ more interesting."

* * *

"Endymion!"

The Prince spun, alarmed at the familiar voice. His hands found Serenity's shoulders and he spun her behind him. The hour was late, there were only a few other couples walking along the waterfront that meandered close to the walls of the Palace and he spotted Beryl easily. His aide came to a halt a dozen feet away from him. The moonlight didn't quite filter through the canopy of the mature trees and the dim lights that were strung along the river barely shed enough light to illuminate Beryl's unreadable expression.

"Neither of you are supposed to be out here." Beryl said flatly.

"You're right." Endymion allowed Serenity to peek from around his shoulder. "And you won't tell anyone you've found us out here, either." Her said sternly.

Beryl smiled at Endymion's unconvincing words and all but ignored his command. She took several steps forward. "Tell me, Endymion, have you heard the rumors about your friends on the Moon?"

"What rumors?" The Prince's voice was ice cold, and he clung to the Serenity that might tighter.

Beryl laughed quietly and the sound seemed out of place, despite the easy atmosphere. A small, wooden boat drifted past, its two passengers absorbed in one another and nothing else.

"Your people are talking about our Lunarian ancestry and the terrible monsters that our cousins on the Moon can summon."

"Cousins? Monsters?" Endymion's voice was accusatory, disbelieving. "I don't know what kind of joke you're aiming for, but I don't find its humor."

"I find it quite humorous, Endymion." Beryl's smile was replaced with a longing frown. "Why don't you ask your Lunarian Trophy about the monsters that have been plaguing her fine kingdom?"

Serenity stepped away from Endymion's protective hold and stood at his side. She was not frightened of Beryl, though confusion was evident on her fine features. "I don't know anything about either of those accusations, and I most certainly would have heard about _monsters_ attacking my people!"

"You will not fool me with your false innocence, Princess, and I will not allow you to fool Endymion, either." Beryl took another step closer, her fingers curling into claws at her side.

"Enough!" Endymion's shout caused several couples walking hand in hand to turn and look. What he didn't realize that once they had realized it was their Prince and the Lunarian Princess, that they hurried away with their gazes averted.

"I will _not_ have you making such accusations, Beryl. You are completely out of line."

"And you're blinded by your ill-fated love that's doomed to destroy your kingdom at _her_ hands!" Beryl's eyes were wide with rage and she pointed her finger at Serenity.

Endymion stepped forward. "You aren't making any sense!"

Beryl stepped forward. "I have proof!"

Both humans turned away from each other at the sudden, out of place sound of a body hitting the ground. They turned, and found Serenity on her side at the base of the tree, face down as though she hadn't had the time or awareness to cushion the blow.

"Serenity!" Endymion rushed to her side, his hands reaching for her, and when he pulled her towards him and turned her in his hold, he gasped when he saw an eerie white light behind her closed eyelids.

* * *

It had taken more than a concerted effort to get Rei to strip and enter the water with her. Even though the pond was well protected by a ring of trees and barely viewable from the other rooms of the Palace, it had taken every bit of Minako's skills of persuasion to get Rei to follow her into the water.

The evening was warm, but the water was cool. Shoulder deep in the dark water, Rei stood stiffly with her arms around her middle. "I still fail to see the point of this."

"Oh?" Minako asked, the water parting easily around her shoulders as she drifted closer with a kick of her legs. "Do you not see the point in _this_?"

Rei inhaled a greedy breath when Minako's fingers pried her hands away from her sides. She automatically wrapped her arms around Minako as the Venusian wound her long legs around Rei's waist.

They were lost to each other for some time; the light of the moon above casting a bright reflection off the pond and tinting their faces silver. Rei might have thought herself totally lost to the woman in her arms, her legs tense as she balanced herself and Minako in the slightly shifting waters, but as her hand snaked between their bodies and Minako drew a needy gasp, Rei suddenly found cause for alarm.

In her lust-hazed mind, Minako cried out in surprise when she was wrenched apart from Rei and spun behind her. In the span of a second, Rei turned her back to Minako and rushed towards the shore. The waters seemed to part as the tell-tale crimson glow of Mars enveloped Rei.

Her transformation was urgent and Mars stood, her body tense, facing the tree line towards the shore. An arrow was notched in her flame bow, the place where the weapon pierced through the water sending up hot tendrils of steam and warming the water around it.

"Rei?"

Mars loosed her arrow and the projectile screamed over the surface of the pond. It hit the rocky shore and exploded; a bracket shot meant less to attack the perceived threat and more to shed light in the darkness.

In the red haze of Mars' fire, three four legged animals hopped out of the brush that surrounded the pond, taking great leaps as they bounded away, the undersides of their stark, white tails a beacon in the fading light of the fire.

"Animals." Mars said breathlessly. "Earth animals." Her flame blow faded and then extinguished. The waters cooled quickly and from behind Mars, Minako laughed melodically.

Mars spun back to her partner with a sour expression. "Very funny." She barked. "I thought someone had snuck up on us!" Minako reached out to her and the crimson warrior batted away her hands. "You could have transformed too, you know. If it had been some kind of danger, you'd have been vulnerable."

Minako's hands snaked inside Mars' weak defenses and she slid her arms around the Martian's neck. "You meant to say _naked_. You're so possessive."

Mars growled, stubbornly ignoring Minako's advances, adrenaline still pumping madly through her veins.

Minako smirked, "Besides," she said leadingly, "Where's the fun in that? I much prefer us _without_ clothes."

Despite Mars' protests, when Minako's legs wrapped back around her waist, Mars' transformation faltered and slipped completely, and in a matter of moments, Rei's hand had eagerly resumed its prior task.

* * *

"I feel like a prune."

Minako lifted her head from Rei's shoulder and sucked her teeth in mock frustration. "Well, we certainly can't have _that_, now can we?"

"Minako," Rei growled.

The Venusian chuckled, but she reluctantly floated away from her partner, one hand still linked with Rei's as she pulled the Martian back towards the shore. They were halfway there, in water up to their waists when both women paused, that same sense of unease that had captured Mars earlier now alerting the both of them.

Minako squinted, her gaze scanning the tree line. "Do you hear that?"

Rei canted her head to the side. "It sounds like… piano music."

Minako looked back to Rei, but her subordinate had already transformed. Minako turned back to the tree line, and as Venus, she ran towards the shore, the two of them shedding water as they scrambled up the rocks and dashed through the trees.

They'd barely started on the path back to the Palace when the music increased in volume; the rhythm of the song urgent and insistent as though they could feel it in their blood. Suddenly, the air before them shimmered as though they could see the sound waves that pressed against them. It was so painful that they had to stop to clasp their hands over their ears, and it was then that the youngest of the shitennou suddenly materialized before them.

Venus stepped closer to him. "Jadeite?"

The young blond stumbled forward, his expression twisted with worry. "Master-" he paused, remembering himself, "Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity are being attacked! Zoicite sent me to-"

"Where are they!"

Jadeite recoiled, shrinking away from the leader of the senshi where she held the lapel of his jacket in a vice-tight grip. "They're far from here! On the outskirts of the Palace- wait!"

Mars and Venus paused, already having sprinted several yards away. The crimson warrior scoffed at her leader, eager to track their Princess.

"I can get you there quicker." Jadeite said.

"How." Venus tightly reined in her anxiety.

Jadeite smiled smally. "We have magic, just like you do. Zoicite will fly us there. It's how I got to you so quickly. The music will teleport us."

Venus turned towards her second in command who shook her head furiously. Mars didn't trust him. Venus wasn't sure she could either, but for the sake of her Princess, she was willing to take the chance. The leader of the senshi stood tall, her hands fisted at her sides. She turned back to the youngest shitennou.

"Get us there _now_." She barked.

* * *

The disorientation of traveling by music wasn't easy for either of them, but somehow, when Mars and Venus found themselves in a darkly lit waterfront area littered with several human bodies, they couldn't entirely believe their eyes. They ran down the narrow stone path regardless, following the telltale trail of bodies as if they were breadcrumbs.

"How did the youma get here?" Mars met the first monster head on, a bolt of fire pinning the dark cloaked ghoul to the trunk of a mature tree, incinerating it on impact.

Jadeite ran his fastest to keep up, a short dagger gripped in his gloved hands. "You've seen these… _monsters_ somewhere before?"

Venus looked back over her shoulder, her narrowed eyes causing the young shitennou to falter, before shifting her gaze to focus on the closest youma. She buried the Venus dagger in the middle of its chest while tossing a beam of light at another that was out of range.

"This way." Mars suddenly veered to the right, turning away from the riverfront and down a narrow street that led back towards the town.

Jadeite frowned and thought to question, but Venus would not doubt her second in command's tracking ability, and she shouted to him over her shoulder, "Follow us!"

"But there's more of them that way!" He argued, pointing back towards the waterfront.

One corner of Venus' mouth pulled upwards. "Those things will eat you alive if you go alone. We need to save your Master and our Princess first."

This was enough for Jadeite, and he hurried to catch up, his complexion white and his expression strained. Mars sent a bolt of fire at a monster that charged at them from the side. The scent of charred flesh reached Jadeite and he barely managed to leap over a human couple; dead and on their faces in the middle of the path, their skin dried and puckered as if the very life had been sucked from their bodies.

"Venus!"

Their voices preceded their powers, and a charge of electricity streamed next to a column of ice, announcing Mercury and Jupiter and taking out two youma that were hot on the trail of Venus, Mars, and Jadeite.

The leader of the senshi nodded at her newly arrived warriors, and they filed in behind them as they charged into the small town.

The shops were darkened and the street lamps dim, but the Moon above provided ample ambient light to see the carnage. Dozens of youma raged along the main thoroughfare. A handful of human bodies lay dead in the street; broken and drained. And on the rooftops of the surrounding buildings that lined the street, Terrans stood, gathered in shock and watching as the monsters hunted down anything that moved.

"Nephrite!"

Her hands arched before her to ready a long-range attack and Venus paused and looked in the direction Jadeite had indicated. In a narrow alley between buildings, she saw Nephrite pressed against a brick wall, his sword piercing a youma through its middle, even as another loomed over him threateningly.

Venus' chain formed in her hands and she lashed out, the golden links of light barely long enough to snake around and capture the youma. It took all she had to cleave the youma in half, and when she did, its upper torso collapsed towards Nephrite, who lunged away and scrambled to regain his feet.

"They're stronger than they've ever been." Venus' words were quiet, but her senshi nodded; they already knew all too well and there were so many more to kill, and still no sign of their Princess.

"Mars?" Venus asked.

Mars stared grimly into the tangle of youma that blocked their passage. "We'll have to fight our way through them. Endymion must be retreating, taking Serenity to safety. She's on the move."

"Kunzite and Zoicite should be protecting them." Nephrite barked as he fell into their loosely knit circle.

Jadeite bravely lashed out as a youma escaped Jupiter and Mercury's defenses, and his small dagger impaled the ghoul through the neck. As the creature sagged to the ground, he stared at his blade in wonder.

"No blood…"

"Jadeite!"

The young man snapped back to reality and realized that the Lunarian warriors had already slaughtered the other creatures in the vicinity and had moved on to attack the rest.

Mars lead the charge; single minded and intense, a pillar of fire preceding her. Jadeite gained his feet underneath him and hurried to bring up the rear with Nephrite, the other man too focused as he attacked at any monster that got close enough with his sword, his face carrying a fixed and blank expression.

"There!" Mars barked as the last youma that blocked their path was dispatched. The women slowed as they stumbled into the town's main square, heels and boots catching in the rivulets of the cobblestones, their jaws slack at what they found before them.

"White… youma?"

Venus couldn't tell whose breathless voice had coined the term, but as she watched the strange creatures; so very similar to the youma they knew, only clothed in white, flowing robes and sporting blue faces that bore the mark of the crescent moon across their foreheads, she didn't know what to call them either. A dozen of the creatures moved slowly and fluidly, as if in a ritualistic dance, constantly moving in an endless circle around some hidden, central point, almost as if they were guarding something precious.

"Serenity's _in_ there." Mars said flatly. "They protect her."

They were afforded a glimpse; their Princess wasn't the only one concealed within the circle. Kunzite and Zoicite had attacked one of the creatures from the outside, and as the other white youma fanned out, parting around their dying comrade, the others could see Endymion in the center of the circle, holding Serenity's motionless body close to his chest.

"Princess!" Mercury broke their silence and Jupiter restrained her, a strong hand cinching around Mercury's upper arm.

"She lives. She is uninjured." Mars' voice was distant. It chilled Venus, who gasped when she got a better view of their Princess.

"Her eyes," Venus whispered.

Only Mars heard her commander's shocked voice. "They glow." Mars responded cryptically. She went tense, her eyes narrowed, she snapped her gaze to her commander. "Ami's perimeter guard."

"What about it?" Venus asked.

Mars spun back to look at Mercury. "Why didn't it go off when the youma attacked?"

"I… I don't…" Mercury looked lost, sputtering for answers.

Venus gathered herself. Her voice deepened and she tried to find strength in her role as leader. "Mercury," she shouted, "what can you tell us about these things?"

Mercury was already on it, one of her diagnostic tools flashing in her palm. "I think they're still youma." She said hoarsely. "They have the same energy pattern… only, it's reversed."

"Reversed?" Jupiter whispered, her body tense and ready to attack.

Mercury looked up from her tool, her eyes haunted. "It's like… it's like they're _anti_ youma."

"Anti…" Venus could not complete the phrase. Her white-gloved hands fisted and her chain rematerialized between her fingers. "They aren't attacking, but they're still a threat to the Princess."

She looked back to her warriors. They needed no other instruction, and as one, the four of them charged, Jadeite and Nephrite lagging behind them only slightly to aide their own comrades.

Mars tore through three of the white youma before she encountered any resistance and with her next strike, they white youma she had attacked was engulfed in flames, but would not burn.

"They must perceive us as a threat!" Mercury shouted, withdrawing a blade of ice from the white youma she had impaled, but had not seemed to injure. She skittered backwards, her ice blade wavering in her grip as she matched strength with another of the creatures.

Jadeite and Nephrite attacked one simultaneously, their blades piercing it in the neck and the stomach. It faltered, but did not go limp as the other youma had. Of the other two that had not been slaughtered, one faced off against Mars and Venus, and the other against Kunzite and Zoicite.

Endymion collapsed to his knees, holding Serenity tightly to his chest. "Please, Serenity, _please_ wake up!" His voice was desperate and he touched his forehead to hers.

A bright light suddenly erupted across the darkness, accompanied by a sound as deafening as a sonic boom. The humans, the off-worlders, even the white youma closed their eyes against the blinding light and shrinked away from the painful sound.

"They've gone." The first to open her eyes, Venus' voice was a haunted whisper. The town square was emptied of the white youma. And in Endymion's arms, Serenity was wide awake.

"What… what happened?" The Princess' voice was small and scared, as though it were that of a frightened child. Endymion quieted her, holding her close and murmering into her ear.

It was Mercury's diagnostic tool that shattered the tentative silence, an urgent beeping that would not be quieted. She held the device in shaky hands, pointed at their princess.

"Mercury?" Jupiter's voice was tentative, concerned when her comrade wouldn't look at her, the Mercurian's wide gaze looking only at Mars.

"Mars…" Mercury's voice failed her.

Mars didn't turn to acknowledge Mercury. Her gaze was centered on the Princess. Her dark eyes were haunted.

Venus watched Mars, her own eyes wide and dry, fearing the untold sights that she knew Mars was seeing. A chill ran down her spine when Mars spoke, her voice hollow and coarse.

"The holder of the ginzuishou."

The insistent beeping of Mercury's tool did not stop, a constant roar in the heads of all the senshi as too many coincidences so neatly lined up.

But then, the strained silence was finally too much to bear, and Kunzite spun on Venus, the rage held behind the man's normally calm and snide exterior staggering.

"This is all _your_ fault!" He barked. "These creatures! The civilians have said that they've been seen on the Moon. Have you brought them here to attack us?"

"Kunzite!"

The eldest shitennou recoiled at the recrimination in his Prince's voice, but he did not back down, still towering over the silent and stony Venus.

Endymion rose to his feet shakily, the woman in his arms trembling and mumbling incoherently as though waking from a nightmare. He inserted himself forcibly between the two commanders, his piercing gaze demanding submission from Kunzite.

"This is a discussion for the morning. After Serenity has recovered from her fright and we can collect more information on just _what_ happened here." He turned his gaze; cold and hard and unapologetic, to Venus. "I'm sure there will be _much_ explaining to do."

Venus cowed her head to the Earthling Prince. "Yes, Endymion." Her voice was flat, her mind elsewhere. "In the morning."

* * *

Preview, Chapter 22: Inconsolable Princess

Ami glanced sideways at her piles of books and files. "I thought I might find some other clues; something else in the myths and legends that might point to a way to prevent… the inevitable."

"Let me guess," Makoto's voice fell flat. "You haven't found anything."

"…No."

Makoto closed the difference between them and placed a hand on Ami's shoulder. "Then take a break." She smiled handsomely. "Why don't you go on a walk with me? There's something I've been meaning to show you, anyway."

Ami's brow furrowed. She seemed torn until she abruptly rolled away from Makoto's touch, her expression nearly twisted into a snarl. "How can you suggest going for a walk when our very end might be near?"

Makoto frowned and stepped back into Ami's personal space once again. This time, when her hand closed on Ami's shoulder, she wasn't so gentle. "This is _my_ coping mechanism, Ami. Why don't you try it for a change?"


	22. Chapter 22

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 22: Inconsolable Princess  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Minako hadn't questioned the sudden decision to hold conference on the top floor of the palace, but as her senshi and the Earthlings filed into the wide room filled with cherry wood furniture, she understood all too clearly that the move to higher ground had been entirely for their safety.

Her fists clenched at her sides as she looked out a wide bank of windows at the rear of the room. On the ground below them, hundreds of civilians stood before the closed palace gate, crowded on the narrow bridge across the river. Some held signs, some held weapons, some were shouting at the top of their lungs. Although Minako couldn't see the signs or hear their words, the intent was clear. The Terrans did not want the Lunarians on their planet. The offworlders were being blamed for crimes against humanity, crimes which they had committed; not the least of which included the slaughter of Earthling civilians at the hands of the youma.

At the hands of the holder of the ginzuishou.

At the hands of Serenity.

A hand at the small of her back startled Minako, and she turned to meet Rei's distant gaze. The Martian was quiet and cautious. She did not speak, but only glanced back towards the broad meeting table where the others had settled anxiously. The general chatter failed to ease the darting glances sent towards Princess Serenity - seated close to Endymion's right, her eyes red and puffy, her gaze cast to her lap, her posture as stiff as a statue.

Minako took her cue and seated herself across from Endymion and Kunzite. Rei sat stiffly at Minako's right, Ami to the Venusian's left and Makoto just beyond the Mercurian. Venus' subordinates knew to maintain their silence, and the leader of the senshi was all too aware of the maddening thoughts that ran rampant through all their minds - fear for, and perhaps fear _of_ their Princess paramount to all of them.

Kunzite cleared his throat deliberately and the sound was as blunt as a rounded object that cut through the tentative quiet. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

Minako wanted to wipe the man's smug grin off his face. Her face scrunched up in distaste when he leered at Serenity.

"Your guardians must have a lot on their minds, Princess. They've been _awfully_ quiet."

Minako slammed her fist on the table, narrowly resisting the urge to become Venus and teach the human a lesson. "You will address _me_, Kunzite. Not the Princess."

Sitting on the other side of Endymion, Serenity shifted in her seat. She lifted her gaze from her lap, her lower lip quivering when she found that not one of her senshi could seem to meet her gaze. Not even Ami. She looked back down at her lap, several hot tears streaming down her cheeks. She found strength in Endymion when he slid his hand into hers under the table's edge.

Kunzite sneered across the table at Minako, but a recriminating glare from Endymion reeled him in. Endymion sighed greatly. He released Serenity's hand and clasped his fingers together on the tabletop before him.

"I understand that dissent against the Moon Kingdom has been building for days here on Earth," he said tentatively. "Ever since the rest of our diplomats returned from the Moon. They say they heard of… monster attacks on your planet."

He looked up from his hands then, and turned his gaze at Minako. "Last night, Beryl approached Serenity and I-"

Serenity sniffled softly. Endymion unclasped his hands and returned one of them to Serenity's lap. "Beryl told me of the monsters personally." He frowned in distaste. "She told me that Lunarians and Earthlings were once the same peoples; that we're distant cousins, and that my love for Serenity is ill-fated."

Unwilling to offer any answers until she knew for certain what issues she could step around, and what issues were most important to the Prince, Minako paired a neutral expression with her silence.

"An ill-fated love," Endymion continued as he examined the cherry wood of the tabletop with a sour look. "What kind of foolishness is that?"

Minako leaned forward, her elbows resting on the table. "You should not weigh your emotions against the weight of a fairytale prophecy." She said gently. "I know your people are upset, and eager to place blame on us as outsiders, but you should not question your love for my Princess, Endymion."

Serenity found the courage to look up then, and when the leader of her guard offered her a nod and a wink, she smiled smally.

"Do not try to step around the issues, Venus." Kunzite leaned across the table, his eyes narrowed at Minako. He had hoped to intimidate her, but wasn't wholly surprised when she remained unfazed.

"Explain the monsters," he demanded. "They are yours, are they not? The civilians say that your people can summon them at will."

Minako leaned back. She pushed a lock of dark hair behind her ear and then crossed her arms. "They are not _ours_." She said, looking only to her senshi. "They've attacked _us_ in the past, but they are not at our command, and nor could we do something so outrageous as _summon_ them."

Kunzite's brows met. "My people say that history claims that your people stripped us humans of our Lunarian powers, that you'll use the monsters to enslave us, that our planet is all you want since you've ruined your own."

Minako snorted derisively. "That's a ridiculous concept." She leaned forward again. "The Moon's resources are so depleted that we don't have an army with which to accomplish such a feat as to enslave an entire race, even if we wanted to. Do not forget that the Moon Kingdom was founded on peace and prosperity – not on war or occupation."

"But you do not deny our shared ancestry." These words were from Endymion, who spoke slowly and with great weight.

Minako looked down. She uncrossed her legs and the crossed them the other way. She considered her words for a long moment. "Thousands of years ago, your people were Lunarian, but it was _your_ choice to pull away from the Moon Kingdom, and your Lunarian powers were only depleted because your ancestors closed themselves off from us, not because they were taken forcibly by Lunarian accord."

The room fell into a still silence. The squeak of a chair as one of the shitennou shifted in their seats caused everyone to recoil. Endymion was the only one strong enough to find words, and he turned to the Princess, as if he hoped for her to deny the partial truths that Minako had offered.

"Serenity?" He asked.

The Princess fidgeted, her fingers gripping Endymion's in her lap. "I did not know the half of it. That, I promise."

"The Princess has been shielded from such knowledge." Minako said hurriedly. It was clear to her that although the humans knew the legend that the love between the Prince and Princess was ill-fated, they did not make the connection that Serenity, in fact, _had_ summoned the youma; a point that the Venusian had managed to talk around. And it was just as clear to her that Serenity was completely unaware of that very fact – unaware of what she had done at all. She was at the mercy of the ginzuishou inside of her.

With that realization, Minako's heart went out to her Princess, and she couldn't help but wonder what kind of a woman Serenity would have been without the presence of the jewel inside her, or what she'd have been like if she had better control over the darkness-

"I think it would be safest for all of you to return to the Moon."

Endymion's flat voice produced a varied response around the room. Kunzite and Nephrite smiled smugly. Jadeite and Zoicite wore torn expressions. Minako nodded with understanding; an understanding that her senshi seemed to share. Serenity cried. Her soft sobs filled the small room.

Endymion turned to the Princess, his dark eyes soft. "I'm sorry to cut your trip short, but I'm concerned for your safety, Serenity."

He turned back to Minako and was able to gain strength from the Venusian. "I will try to sort out this… misunderstanding. I think my peoples need time to come to terms with our shared ancestry. I'll have my diplomats work on mending the Lunarian image. And in the meantime, about those monsters…"

Minako stood. Her senshi mirrored her action. "In the meantime, we'll look into how those monsters followed us to your planet, and when you're ready, we can have our diplomats work alongside your own to repair relationships."

"I fear it'll take much more than that." Endymion said quietly.

Minako did not respond to Endymion's dire concern. She could only stretch the truth so far.

* * *

Upon her return to the Moon Palace, Serenity had shut herself in her room. Unwilling to put much distance between themselves and their Princess, Minako, Rei, Makoto and Ami had evicted the servant girl from the quarters positioned directly across the hall from Serenity's room. From there, inside of the small, sparsely furnished room, they staged an impromptu meeting.

Ami sat at a small work desk that was pushed into the corner. On its top was piles of books and electronic files, and in a jumbled mess, three hardbound books were open and three electronic files were active; one for each of the inner planets, and one for the Moon, each one written in the language of their planets, each one detailing the same fairytale; the one that had triggered the Terran dissent against the Lunarians.

Ami pushed her small wooden chair away from the desk. Unable to maintain eye contact with her comrades, she leveled her gaze on the granite floor. "We all knew that the fairytale was shared across our cultures, and that each of us has a slightly different version, but did you know that the Terrans have one too?"

The Mercurian managed to look up, if only for a moment before her gaze darted back the floor. "The Venusian emphasis on the myth is on the love between the Prince and the Princess. The Martians place an emphasis on the war between the nations. The Jovian emphasis is on the monsters – the youma, and the Mercurian emphasis is on the differences between the cultures of the nations."

"Ami-"

"But do you know how the Terran version goes?" Ami suddenly looked up with wild eyes and her comrades recoiled. "The Terran version encompasses _all_ of our fairytales. It's the most complete version of the story and even goes so far as to claim that the Prince is of the Earth and the Princess is of the Moon."

"Ami-"

"It was right here! Right in front of us all this time! The prophecy of our doom! If only we could have-"

"Could have what?" This time Makoto's words got through to Ami, and she leaned against the opposite wall with her arms crossed over her chest. "You can't change fate, Ami. You may be senshi, but you don't have the powers of a God."

Ami hung her head again. "Or the powers of the host of the ginzuishou."

Where she sat on the servant's small bed, Minako pulled her legs closer to her chest."You really think it has that much power?"

"It does." Ami replied. "Which is why it's so frightening that it's in Serenity's hands."

Makoto shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "But if she could _control_ that power-"

"Not in this lifetime."

Everyone turned to the sound of Rei's flat voice. Minako thought to question her second in command; those words stuck in her mind, and she was certain she'd heard Rei use them in reference to Serenity in another time and place long ago.

"I don't understand." Luna paced across a low table in the center of the room. "How could Serenity of all people be the holder of the ginzuishou?"

"Shh!" Minako hissed. She glanced towards the door; open to allow them to see into the hallway on the off chance that Serenity might leave her chambers.

Makoto punched a fist into an open palm, her body tense. "We can't follow through with our original plan."

"Of course not!" Ami recoiled at the urgency of her own voice, and she pressed her knees together tightly.

"No," Minako said, her voice distant and bitter as she drew her knees slower to her chest. "It wouldn't do for the Princess' guardians to kill her."

"We're weak." Rei said. "All of us."

"What do you mean?" Minako asked, looking to her second in command sourly, Rei's stiff form stood near her next to the bed, her back turned to the group as she stared out the room's small window. "Is it because we're unwilling to kill her to negate the threat?"

"No." Rei said evenly. She looked back over her shoulder at her commander. "We're weak because we _can't_ kill her."

Glaring sharply at Rei, Makoto pushed off the wall, her hands fisted at her sides. "What are you trying to say?"

Ami stood abruptly, her small frame shaking. "The white youma," she said hurriedly, looking at the Martian. "They are the other half of the jewel. The _protect_ Serenity, don't they, Rei-san?"

Rei nodded. Makoto backed off. Ami sat back down.

Minako looked at Luna with a steely gaze. "A rock and a hard spot," she spat. "We're stuck."

"We're at _her_ mercy." Rei's cold voice said the one thing no one else could, but despite her harsh bluntness, she surprised the others with her next words. "All we can do is be there to support her, and hope she doesn't do what the last host of the jewel did."

"Mars?" Luna asked. The cat was speechless and frightened. She sat abruptly on her haunches.

"It's a simple equation, isn't it?" Minako said, half with certainty and half in question. "The more negative energy Serenity's exposed to, the higher the chances are that the youma emerge. Isn't that right, Rei?"

The Martian nodded at her commander's acute observation and Minako smiled smally.

"But she's inconsolable right now." Luna said with no small amount of defeat. "She won't even come out of her room."

"We have to do our best to console her," Ami's hands fidgeted in her lap, "or at least hold a tighter guard over her. I don't think she should be left alone. There's no telling what she…"

Minako let the unfinished sentence hang in the air for a short moment. "One of us should remain near her quarters at all times. If she leaves her room, we follow." She looked to the Mercurian. "Ami-chan?" Minako tried to smile by way of apology. "I know things are a little… different between you and Serenity, but I think you have the best chance of getting through to her."

Makoto stiffened. Her gaze shot to the floor. If anyone noticed, it was not commented on.

Ami nodded, though she didn't look up from her hands. "I'll do my best."

Minako turned to the royal advisor. "Luna, we have to tell the Queen that we've identified her daughter as the ginzuishou's host."

Luna shifted on her haunches. "I'm afraid that won't be possible."

Minako swung her legs off the edge of the bed, her body tense. "Why not? I know she's busy trying to balance what's left of her kingdom, but is this not of the utmost importance?"

"Of course it is!" Luna snapped. "Don't think that Queen Serenity hasn't been briefed on everything up until this point, but for the moment, she is out of range of communications."

"Out of range?" Minako asked.

"When we received your report that the Terrans were protesting against us, the Queen feared that we didn't have the time to repair relations with the Earth. She made the decision to head to Kinmoku last night."

Minako leapt to her feet. "Kinmoku? But we-"

"We'll grovel and beg their forgiveness." Luna spat towards her feet, her hackles raised and her whiskers stiff.

"But it'll take more than two months for the Queen to even _get_ there!" Minako said.

"Two and a half, precisely." Ami said quietly. "Even in her fastest flagship."

"It's too late."

A shiver ran down her spine and Minako turned to the Martian. "Rei?"

"It's too late." Rei repeated distantly.

* * *

After their meeting, the senshi had parted ways. Mercury had taken first guard duty and Jupiter had already swapped places with her. The youngest senshi had been frustrated and frightened when she could not get even the slightest of reactions from her inconsolable Princess. While Venus had spent several hours briefing Artemis and the tacticians, Mars had made a beeline for her rooftop garden. She had started a fire, and had set herself in front of it, and she had not moved since.

That had been twelve hours ago, and for the past eight, after Venus had finished with the tacticians, Minako had held a silent vigil over Mars.

The Venusian paced across the small roofline, walking in the trodden grasses along the low stone retaining wall. She gazed off the edge of the roof as she paced, not really seeing the twenty story drop to the quiet courtyard below, not noticing the few Lunarians who sometimes kept watch on her from their lit rooms in the spire on the other side of the palace.

She looked back at Mars. The crimson warrior had not yet moved. Sweat ran down her temple. The white of her fuku glowed orange in the firelight and her pale skin nearly seemed healthy and vibrant in its flickering heat.

Her sense of uselessness reached its breaking point and Minako stomped towards her second in command. She folded her legs underneath her and kneeled, staring at Mars for a long moment before reaching her hand out slowly. Minako knew the consequences of touching the Martian while she was in a trance before the flames. Not only would she subject herself to whatever horrors Mars might be experiencing, but she chanced invoking Rei's wrath, a wrath that always made her wonder why Rei went to such great lengths to protect her from her spiritual senses, and whether or not that need was based solely on her protective nature.

With a conscious effort, Minako stilled the shaking in her hand and clasped Mars' shoulder firmly. At that initial contact, the Venusian's breath caught in her throat as her senses were instantly flooded.

_She felt as if she were tumbling head over heels through an endless chasm, and she distantly wondered if Mars was able to make any sense of the relentless disorientation. _

_Before her eyes, half-visions of people and places flashed too quickly to recognize, fleeting scents and tastes she could catch only long enough to register before they morphed into something even more frightening; burnt flesh, coppery blood, gritty dirt. But the worst of it was the constantly shifting emotions, fleeting senses of absolute terror, panic, loss…_

Minako was only aware that she was screaming when she snapped her eyes open and realized she was in Mars' arms. It took her several moments to catch her breath, her body trembling and her eyes moist as though she'd woken from a nightmare, accompanied by the same disconnected confusion of forgetting the context of the dream.

Mars waited until Minako's heartbeat baselined, and then she pulled back. Minako was unsurprised to find a scowl on the crimson warrior's face, a scowl that nearly masked the exhaustion she found in Mars' dark eyes.

"How can you stand it?" Minako's voice was soft and distant.

"I've warned you not to touch me." Mars barked.

"I was only trying to help." Minako fisted her hands in her lap like a scolded child. She turned her face and tried to rise, to turn to leave, and was entirely surprised when Mars reached out and grabbed her by the wrist.

"Don't go…"

The crimson warrior would not look directly at her commander and she resorted to a sideways glance, the corners of her lips nearly pulled into a grimace. It was an expression that Minako might have once been offended by, but had only come to understand as the Martian tendency to avoid showing weakness. It didn't look like Mars was asking for help, but Minako saw the gesture for what it was.

"Stay, Please." Mars' voice was so quiet that it was barely audible.

Minako sank back to her knees slowly. She never had been able to figure out if Mars ever walked away from her trances with anything more than the fear and disorientation that she experienced, and she doubted she would get an answer even if she asked. Her fingers cupped Mars' cheek.

Mars leaned into her commander's touch, her troubled eyes sliding shut. "Just your presence alone… it centers me. It keeps me from getting lost in the flames-"

"Shh." Minako traced her thumb over Mars' cheek. "I'm not going anywhere, you fool."

Mars snorted, and when she opened her eyes, Minako was relieved to see that they were slightly less haunted. She knew she ought to encourage her second in command to return to the flames, to find the answers to their cloudy futures, but she couldn't bring herself to send Mars back, and found herself only rehashing her own worries and concerns.

"You still haven't told me why you think we're out of time, Rei."

Minako's comment made Mars stiffen and brought a tightly pinched expression to the Martian's face. Minako regretted sending Mars back to such a state, especially after a long moment of silence in which she knew Mars would not, or as she suspected, _could not_ answer.

Minako shifted tactics. Softening her voice, she placed her other hand on the other side of Mars' face. "Can't you see?" She asked gently, "Can't you see if we'll ever be happy together? Without the fear of the ginzuishou? Without the Earthlings? Without-"

Minako's voice shriveled and stuck in the back of her throat when Mars' eyes squeezed shut. With trembling shoulders, Mars released one, wrenching sob and then suddenly hinged at the waist, falling toward the Venusian who caught her easily, pulling her to her and cradling her head on her chest. Minako held the Martian's trembling body, whispering soft reassurances that were meant more for herself than for the other woman.

And when Mars became Rei in her emotional weakness, and buried herself into Minako even more, clinging to her tightly as though she could escape the memories of the horrors that the fire had subjected her to, Minako tried to calm her with a soothing song.

She chose one that she had sung to Rei before, one that they both remembered from their childhoods - a fairytale that had never failed to remind them of easier times despite their drastically different upbringings.

So much a part of themselves, the song went unnoticed between them for a long moment, but the longer Minako sang; slightly wavering and increasingly off key as realization dawned on her that she was singing the fairytale that foretold the end of their worlds, Minako began to lose what little strength she maintained, and she struggled to maintain her strong façade.

And on the abandoned rooftop garden with only a small fire to warm them, two women afraid of losing everything they'd worked so hard to build tried to find solace in one another.

* * *

Two days had passed, and still, Serenity had not left her quarters. Minako and Rei, when not stoically standing guard near the Princess' chambers, were elusive and downtrodden. To Makoto's knowledge, Ami had not slept in forty-eight hours; spending her time either furiously studying any bit of information she could find that might help them, or spending her time trying to console Serenity.

And so, Makoto had assigned herself a second guard duty, this one over Ami, and her highest priority was to get the Mercurian to distance herself from her worries. She knocked tentatively on Ami's door.

"I'm busy. Please go away."

Even given the polite addition to the curt refusal, Makoto scowled at Ami's behavior. Heedless of the command, she opened the door and stepped into the stark antechamber.

Ami sat hunched over her large desk, its surface completely covered and piled high with electronic files and wide books, the same tomes that held the information on the inter-solar system myth that seemed to foretell their doom.

"Ami-chan,"

"I told you I'm busy!"

The Mercurian spun so fast in her chair that two large tomes slipped from their precarious piles and crashed to the floor. Ami squeaked in surprise, though less at the noise she'd made and more at the hurt expression she found on the Jovian's face.

Likewise, when Makoto saw the worry and exhaustion written into Ami's eyes - the same unspoken fears that haunted their leader's – she forged forward.

"Makoto-san, I'm… I'm sorry. I-"

"It's okay." Makoto forced a smile and scratched at the back of her neck. "Listen," She said, "I know you're real busy trying to research, but you shouldn't wear yourself out." She chuckled nervously.

Ami glanced sideways at her piles of material. "I thought I might find some other clues; something else in the myths and legends that might point to a way to prevent… the inevitable."

"Let me guess," Makoto's voice fell flat. "You haven't found anything."

"…No."

Makoto closed the difference between them and placed a hand on Ami's shoulder. "Then take a break." She smiled handsomely. "Why don't you go on a walk with me? There's something I've been meaning to show you, anyway."

Ami's brow furrowed. She seemed torn until she abruptly rolled away from Makoto's touch, her expression nearly twisted into a snarl. "How can you suggest going for a walk when our very end might be near?"

Makoto frowned and stepped back into Ami's personal space once again. This time, when her hand closed on Ami's shoulder, she wasn't so gentle. "This is _my_ coping mechanism, Ami. Why don't you try it for a change?"

The Mercurian's mouth hung slack for a long moment. She couldn't mask the guilt she felt that she had underestimated the brawny Jovian's understanding and intuition that seemed to surpass her own. Her gaze fell from Makoto's; the woman who had so quickly become her closest friend, the woman who had competed for the spot in her heart that Serenity had occupied for so long… all without even seeming to try.

"Thank you, Mako-chan."

The Jovian blushed, both at Ami's honesty and the affectionate suffix. She snorted and released her hold on Ami's shoulder. Turning her back, she returned to the door casually, and then paused before it, looking back behind her.

"You comin' or what?"

Ami looked up, a bright blush on her cheeks. She leapt from her chair, which rolled backwards across the floor.

"Coming!"

* * *

"The rose garden?" Ami asked as Makoto veered away from the formal gardens and onto the sandy path.

"Uh huh." Makoto replied over her shoulder. "There's something back here that I've been wanting to show you."

"What is it?" Ami trotted closer to walk shoulder to shoulder with the other woman.

"Oh, just a rose hybrid I created."

Ami's eyes widened. "You-"

"It's right there." Makoto pointed to a small shrub-style rose that bore a profusion of bright red blooms. She smiled when Ami hurried to the plant and knelt before it.

Makoto rubbed at the back of her neck. "It's young, which is why it's still so small. I didn't have too much time to make the cross, but I think it meets the criteria you wanted." She raised an eyebrow when Ami seemed tentative to touch it. "Go on. It does have some thorns, but I managed to breed the majority of them out of it."

Ami's fingers brushed the densely packed petals. "It has a double bloom," she noted. "Even though it's a shrub variety, you gave it the look of a hybrid tea rose by increasing the number of petals."

Behind her, Makoto beamed with pride.

Ami leaned down to inspect the foliage more closely. "The new growth has a lovely burgundy color to complement the waxy green leaves, and the branching tendency off the main stem creates a symmetrical shrub shape."

She leaned back, examining the shrub against those it was planted near. "This one has black spot, and this one has aphids," She looked back at Makoto's rose, "And yet your hybrid seems resistant to both."

Makoto smiled broadly when Ami looked at her over her shoulder. "What?" She asked with a shrug of her shoulders. "You wanted a pest and disease resistant plant with a traditional bloom. What's it missing?"

"It… it's not missing anything!" Ami scrambled to her feet. She returned to Makoto's side but continued to look at the plant. "What will you call it?

"I was thinking about calling it the 'Knockout Rose'." Makoto chuckled and threw a weak punch in the air. "Pretty stupid, huh?"

"No!"

"Ami-chan?"

A dark blush high on her cheeks, the Mercurian smiled but would not make eye contact. "But I think '_Double_ Knockout' would be a more appropriate name. Considering both its double blooms and its creator."

Ami finally managed to raise her gaze high enough to meet Makoto's gaze and seeing the other woman's blush only increased her own. Her breath was shaky in her throat. "I think it's a perfect name."

Makoto chuckled awkwardly. "I wouldn't go that far-"

"Mako-chan, it's absolutely beautiful. You should-"

"It's not as beautiful as you."

Despite the Jovian's rushed words, they did not sound forced, and she looked at Ami with an intensity that seemed to make the other woman tremble. And when Ami seemed to float into Makoto's waiting arms, the Jovian did not question the attraction that pulled them together.

"The rose is as beautiful as its creator," Ami said, her voice surprisingly even and flat. "I only hope…"

Makoto could sense her sudden melancholy and brushed Ami's long bangs away from her eyes. "Ami-chan?"

"I only hope that we all live long enough to appreciate it."

Tears started to well in Ami's dark eyes and Makoto tightened her hold around the other woman's upper arms. "Don't talk like that."

Makoto's encouragement seemed to have the opposite effect. Ami tried to force a smile, but when she bit her lower lip to steady the tremble in it, she formed a grimace. "I'm so frightened, Mako-chan!"

Makoto pulled Ami into her as tightly as she could and buried her face in Ami's neck. "Stop. Stop thinking about it."

"How?" Ami cried.

"Think about me, instead."

Ami froze when she felt Makoto's wet lips graze her neck softly, tentatively.

"Think about me, Ami."

Safe and warm and feeling entirely protected, Ami shut her eyes and surrendered to Makoto's touch, and it was there that she found that there really were other, better escape mechanisms than burying one's self in books and electronic files, and that, if the end of the world she knew wasn't something she could prevent, that being in Makoto's arms was a much better place to meet the inevitable.

* * *

Preview, Chapter 23: Monster

"Beryl," there was anger in Endymion's voice again and he pulled his head from his hands, "I do not believe in this myth of an ill-fated love of-"

Beryl slapped her open hands against the tabletop. "Just think it over." She managed to maintain eye contact, her dark eyes fiercely determined. "Just think about what I've said, and what I've told you about the Lunarians. Think about your people, and think about _me_."

"Beryl-"

"Can you do that, Endymion? Just _think_?"

The Prince sighed greatly. "I'll think." He said. "I'll think."

Wordlessly, Beryl rose, and from the corner of his eye, Endymion could see her trembling hands as she marched out of the room.

There was silence for only one, brief moment.

"Master-"

"Please," Endymion said hoarsely, "give me a moment."

The door slowly clicked shut again, and as Endymion stared at the darkness behind his tightly closed eyelids, he wondered how selfish he was to love at a time like this, and he wondered if the Lunarians would look at Serenity in the same betrayed and angered fashion that his own people would be looking at him.


	23. Chapter 23

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 23: Monster  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Several days had passed since the Lunarians had returned to the Moon. Still, the hundreds of protestors who had arrived at the Palace gates had not left their posts, and if anything, had increased in numbers.

And when Beryl walked straight through the crowd, the people parted for her. Only, instead of the looks of disdain she'd long since grown accustomed to, she was wholly surprised by the reverence these commoners seemed to hold for her.

"Kuroki."

Many of them tipped their heads and uttered her last name as if it might save them, and still, she paid them no heed, as though she were an uncaring Queen.

She did not ask for their loyalty; she felt that she did not deserve it. She was not leading these people, and yet they looked to her as their commander. All she had done was to release the information that these fearful people had eaten up and then spread to others like a cancer, a cancer that fueled Metallia – the entity that, although far away once again, was steadily gaining a staggering amount of power.

The people behind her filled in the spaces they had vacated for her. Beryl stood at the small door carved into the large gates that held the protestors at bay outside the Palace.

"Let me in." Her simple command, given to the hesitant guard that stood on the other side, seemed to hush her impromptu followers, who held their breaths eagerly as though she might impart a startling new revelation. Yet they did not seem disappointed when she wordlessly slipped into the small opening the guard allowed for the Prince's aide, and they only continued their dissonant protests once more after Beryl had vanished from their sight.

As she walked unerringly through the Palace halls and climbed to the top floors, she did not shy away from the fearful and mistrustful glares she received from the Terran royalty or the servants that tended them. She pushed her way into Endymion's conference room with her head held high and proud.

"That was some show you put on out there. They follow you like dogs to a master." Kunzite said smugly.

Beryl snarled. "Speaking of dogs to a master-"

Kunzite slammed his palm against the tabletop. His subordinates sat around him; tense and quiet and Beryl easily disregarded the shitennou and turned to her Prince. Endymion sat at the far end of the table; his back pressed against his chair, his fingers steepled in his lap. His gaze was unfocused and he wore an unreadable expression.

The malice in Beryl's eyes softened into something else that Endymion never seemed to see. "I may have found the information that has caused their unrest, but I do not know why they follow me." Beryl barked by way of explanation. "I do not lead those people."

"A likely story, Beryl."

The aide pinned the leader of the shitennou with a glare that would have frozen a weaker being on the spot. Kunzite remained unaffected.

Beryl sobered slightly and turned back to her Prince. "May I speak?"

Endymion remained still. When he finally spoke, his voice sounded empty and carried hints of longing. "You have been my aide for a long time, Beryl. And I have never questioned your advice. Not until now."

The woman took several steps forward, her hands balled closely to her. "You can disagree with my views, Endymion, but you can not deny that I represent the fears and worries that your people hold." Her voice turned quiet. "Will you banish me from your court?"

Endymion held Beryl in his gaze for a long moment, his expression unreadable. "I will not." He finally replied.

Beryl ceased her nervous fidgeting and stood tall. "Your people are revolting out there." She said as gently as possible. "They grow weary of our Lunarian neighbors and fear that they would seize Earth as their own once they've sucked the last of the life from the Moon. They fear that the Lunarians will enslave us, and-"

Endymion slammed his fist against the broad tabletop. "I've given them no reason to fear the Lunarians or to come to such outlandish conclusions!"

Beryl could not suppress a small smile. "Fear is a cancer, Endymion, and it's infected your people. Already they are clambering to join your armies to defend their homes against the Lunarians."

The Prince shot his gaze up from his hands, his long, dark bangs falling away from his forehead. "The Lunarians are _helpless_! They have nothing left but a dying planet. How could they possibly be a threat?"

"They have one weapon."

Endymion's eyes narrowed. "If you-"

"That Princess of yours. She will spell our destruction."

Endymion tried to laugh but his exclamation became a garbled cry in the back of his throat. "This again!" He barked. "How could Serenity or her people possibly be capable of summoning _monsters_-"

His words died in his throat as Beryl hurried forward, her high heels against the stone floor loud and urgent. His guardians leapt to their feet and grabbed the hilts of their weapons. Kunzite went so far as to draw his sword, but Endymion stilled him with a simple gesture of his hand. Endymion held his ground and did not flinch when Beryl's long fingernails slipped under the stiff collar of his jacket. With a jerking motion that threatened to break its chain, she pulled at the pendant Serenity had given him.

"This pendant," Beryl growled, her wavy, red hair spilling over her shoulders as she leant down close to Endymion's face. "Do you even know what it means?"

The Prince snatched the amber jewel from Beryl's tight grasp and tucked it back under his collar, close to his heart. "It's just some Mercurian bauble that Serenity gave me."

The aide snorted derisively. "It is not some meaningless _bauble_." Her lips turned upward, but her expression was less a smile and more a grimace. "Tell me, Endymion, would you _marry_ that child?"

"_Marry_ her?" He sputtered as though he were searching for an answer. He frowned and turned a dangerous glare to his aide. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Only _everything_!" Endymion visibly recoiled and Beryl pressed on. "You would betray your people and bring our fates crashing down on us! Fate has declared that your love for her is ill-fated. Marry me instead! Don't you see?" She cried, "You were meant to be with me!"

Beryl was nearly in Endymion's lap, her expression torn between too many emotions and her body trembling wildly. From the corner of his eye, he caught the attention of the shitennou.

"Out." He told them simply.

When his guardians did not respond, he turned an angry snarl on them. "Out! Now!"

Kunzite snorted loudly and made a show of returning his sword to his sheath. Tentatively, the others followed him, and Zoicite and Jadeite watched their Prince until their commander shut the door to allow Endymion his privacy and Beryl her dignity.

"Sit down, Beryl." The Prince's command was spoken low and quietly, and only then did his aide seem to realize the spectacle she'd made of herself. She backed away from him with her gaze cast to the floor. With shaky hands, she slowly pulled the chair next to Endymion away from the table and sat stiffly on its edge.

The two remained in silence for a long moment until Endymion sighed loudly. Leaning towards the table, he surrendered his forehead to his hands.

"Beryl," he said quietly, his eyes shut, "I could no more stop loving Serenity than I could stop breathing. You know that, don't you?" When Beryl remained silent, he continued. "I could not betray her. Not even for a political marriage."

"Then you would sentence your people to death." Her voice was devoid of emotion.

"Beryl," there was anger in Endymion's voice again and he pulled his head from his hands, "I do not believe in this myth of an ill-fated love of-"

Beryl clapped her hands together. "Just think it over." She managed to maintain eye contact, her dark eyes fiercely determined. "Just think about what I've said, and what I've told you about the Lunarians. Think about your people, and think about _me_."

"Beryl-"

"Can you do that, Endymion? Just _think_?"

The Prince sighed greatly. "I'll think." He said. "I'll think."

Wordlessly, Beryl rose, and from the corner of his eye, Endymion could see her trembling hands as she marched out of the room.

There was silence for only one, brief moment.

"Master-"

"Please," Endymion said hoarsely, "give me a moment."

The door slowly clicked shut again, and as Endymion stared at the darkness behind his tightly closed eyelids, he wondered how selfish he was to love at a time like this, and he wondered if the Lunarians would look at Serenity in the same betrayed and angered fashion that his own people would be looking at him.

* * *

"I'm beginning to doubt whether or not this was a good idea." Rei said.

Minako shouldered her way through the crowd with her nose held to the sky. "It's too late now," she spat. She found an open table large enough for the five of them at a street side café and used the sheer force of her will to slip through the festivalgoers and secure the space.

Always two steps behind her commander, Rei caught up a moment later. She splayed her hand on the wrought iron table and leaned over it. "I'm telling you, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Look at her, Rei." Minako hissed, her gaze darting to where Ami and Makoto pulled Serenity through the crowd. The Venusian donned a smile and waved. "Over here, Usagi-chan!"

Serenity caught her alias and trotted faster, the artificial breeze provided by the overtaxed life support system blowing her dark hair behind her. She was dressed to blend in with her guardians and her surroundings. In colors of gold and silver - the colors that had stood for Lunarian ideals for many millennia – she looked the part of any Lunarian youth. She twirled around one of the lampposts that lined the narrow, winding street.

Minako turned back to her second in command. "This is the first time in nearly a week that we've gotten her out of her shell. We need to encourage her to be happy or she'll-"

"And if something upsets her?" Rei interrupted, "out here among all these people?"

Minako straightened. "Then we'll deal with the consequences. Where she is has never affected where the… where _they_ attack."

Rei's mouth clacked shut.

Serenity threw herself into a chair with a happy cry. "This is just what I needed." She said decisively. "Even if celebrating Foundation Day isn't better than being with Endy…" she looked to the leader of her guard for help.

"Mamoru." Minako easily supplied another alias.

"Mamoru." Serenity repeated the name with a dreamy sigh. "I like the sound of that."

The rest of the women sat, and while they allowed Serenity to chatter away happily and carry aimless conversation for all of them, they were waited on and their food was delivered. As Serenity filled her mouth, her guardians remained pensively quiet and only picked at their meals. It wasn't just the awkwardness that the Princess had inadvertently caused with her sudden mood swing from the unknowing harbinger of death and destruction into a happy-go-lucky teenager, although that certainly didn't help. The crowds of people attending the street side festivities were just as unnerving.

Despite the festive sights and sounds, the crowd of festivalgoers seemed on edge. Shifty-eyed and speaking in small groups in low tones, their postures were tense as if waiting for something that might never happen. Even the street performers who played music that carried a heavy-handed complexity between harmony and melody – mostly flutes and drums and stringed instruments – were playing quietly, as if distracted. The weight of uncertainty weighed heavily on everyone.

"For Foundation Day, people don't seem very happy, do they?" Serenity asked through a mouth full of noodles. "What could be bothering them? Are they upset because mother can't be here to celebrate with them?"

The others looked to Minako, but even with her skill of being able to talk her way out of any situation, words seemed to fail her. How does one tell their Princess that she's the reason for the end of everything they knew?

"I think people are just a little worried right now, Usagi-chan." Minako brought her glass to her lips, as much to quench her suddenly dry mouth as to silence her uncertain voice.

Serenity didn't seem to notice the silence that pressed down heavily on her warriors. She pushed her empty plate away from her and sighed. "I could really go for some ice cream."

Ami's lips pursed together. "But you can only get ice cream on Ear-"

Minako leaned forward on her elbows and caught Serenity's attention. "How about some shaved ice?" The enthusiasm in her voice was urgent and forced. The Venusian stood and pulled Serenity to her feet. "I hear there's a great new place just around the corner."

Serenity wrapped her arms around Minako's elbow. "Do they have bubble tea, too?"

"Of course they do!" Minako began to lead Serenity away. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that Rei was a half step behind her. Ami nodded from the table and Makoto signaled the waitress for the check. She knew they'd catch up soon enough.

And they'd have to; for even Minako could only derail conversations for so long, and would need help keeping Serenity distracted from the demons that haunted her.

* * *

Ami put her head in her hands and cursed. "I can't believe I almost reminded her of the Earth."

Makoto put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't know for sure that any random mention of the Earth is going to trigger her sadness and the ginzuishou inside her, Ami-chan."

Ami only scoffed. Makoto let her attention waver for the slightest of moments, only long enough to take the bill from the waitress. She fished in her wallet with one hand and placed several paper bills on top of the receipt.

"Come on." She rose to her feet, prompting Ami to follow with a firm touch. The Mercurian stood tall and nodded sharply, and Makoto began to push her way through the crowd.

They threaded a path through a packed street lined on both sides by game vendors who had set up for the festival. Ami was jostled by a trio of children who were using thin nets to catch small fish that swam in shallow barrels, and Makoto reached back and grabbed the smaller woman's hand. Lacing her fingers through Ami's, she pulled her closer so they could walk side by side.

Ami looked at her feet. A blush crept onto her cheeks. Her gaze darted back and forth. Makoto interpreted her body language in her own way. She slipped her fingers away from Ami's.

"Sorry." She mumbled.

Ami gave Makoto a wide-eyed look. "What for?"

"I figured you were embarrassed to hold my hand in public."

Ami's mouth hung open, but she seemed unable to force any words out of it. Makoto increased her pace and Ami had to trot faster to catch up. She settled for actions in place of words, and took Makoto's hand in her own. The two walked awkwardly side by side and pressed close, not only for the crowd that seemed to demand it.

"I'm not embarrassed." Ami said, her voice barely audible over cap guns and flute music and banging drums. "I just… I feel selfish to be _happy_ at a time like this."

Ami's world suddenly spun and she distantly realized that she'd literally been swept off her feet.

"Mako-chan?"

But the Jovian had pulled her down a narrow alley between rows of crumbling, limestone buildings. She pushed Ami's back against the wall, and her next breath was taken by Makoto's mouth. Ami offered no resistance, and soon competed with Makoto for dominance. Standing on the tips of her toes, pressed tightly against the other woman's front, Ami was confused when Makoto abruptly pulled away.

Makoto's tense body language and narrowed eyes were telling enough. Ami kept quiet and she listened. The crowd in the streets had quieted; but the dissonant grumble that had laced unheard conversations only increased. Bits and pieces of dialogue became easier to decipher.

O

"Someone's going to stage a protest."

"Who is it?"

"Speakers that are representing several of the royal families."

"I heard they were royal aides?"

"Queen Serenity would have them hanged for-"

"Well, Queen Serenity isn't here, _is_ she?"

"Did the Queen appoint them command in her absence?"

"Shouldn't responsibility fall to the Princess?"

"That girl is too young for such a thing."

"It doesn't matter what they say, there's nothing we can do."

"The Earth won't have us. Kinmoku will reject us."

"I told you we were doomed."

O

"We need to get to the Princess." Makoto hadn't moved an inch, though her scowl had amplified greatly.

Ami had no words. She was already running.

* * *

"What's taking them so long?" Rei growled. "I'm going to go see if they got lost-"

Minako grabbed the Martian by the wrist and tried not to laugh at Rei's sour expression. "Give them a minute." She said softly. Rei arched an eyebrow and cocked a hip. Minako smiled knowingly. "They needed a moment."

Rei cursed quietly. She pulled away from Minako's touch with mock indignance, but her upturned nose failed to hide the fact that perhaps _she_ wanted a moment alone with a certain someone, too.

The people in line before them took their brightly colored snocones, already beginning to harden and solidify and melt out the bottom of their little, paper cups. Serenity bounced forward and issued a list of six items. Most of them were for her. Against her better judgment, Rei nearly smiled in amusement, but her leader's sudden rigid stance put her on alert. She turned to look in the direction Minako had indicated.

Ami dodged through the crowd, her small size and quick feet keeping her ahead of Makoto who physically plowed her way down the same path, causing sour looks and hushed curses from those she couldn't so easily get by.

Minako snaked away from Serenity and pinned Rei with a backwards glance. Despite her desire to follow her commander, the Martian stepped closer to the Princess, standing a rigid guard on the woman she was supposed to protect.

She watched a rushed conversation spoken softly, yet urgently, and reinforced by exaggerated gestures on Makoto's part. Rei couldn't make out the conversation, but from the Jovian's body language, she understood the need to _get_ _away_. The Princess was in danger.

Rei started when Serenity pushed the cold cup of a snocone into her sweaty palm.

"Rei-chan?" Serenity asked.

Rei tried for a smile that fell flat. She gave up. Ami and Makoto came to her rescue, flanking Serenity and speaking loudly, as if to distract her from something. Rei took several steps away; enough not to carry her too far from Serenity, and enough to keep a better watch on her commander who stood tense and watchful, her eyes scanning the crowd.

The piercing scream of an airhorn rose above the din. The music dwindled in response, but the crowd hushed only slightly. From the corner of one eye, Rei watched as several figures in the street's square called attention to themselves and climbed onto the raised platform of a long unused fountain. Her other eye remained on Minako. The Venusian was poised and ready. Only Rei could read the uncertainty in her wide stance and flighty gaze.

Two men and a woman that stood on the fountain called for silence and the squeal of feedback over a megaphone brought the dissonant crowd to a tentative quiet. By their dress; lush shades of gold and silver and purple, Rei recognized the three speakers as members of several royal families, close to the Queen in rank, though given their angry expressions, they did not agree with the Queen's policies. The feedback died in an ear-splitting squeal, and one of them spoke.

"We've been left here to perish! Our Queen has fled to Kinmoku with the fruitless task of gaining their acceptance. If they don't kill her on sight, they still will not help us in our time of need!"

The crowd began to talk. Some complained that the last interaction the Lunarians had with Kinmoku was hundreds of years ago, that perhaps their interstellar neighbors would take pity on them. Some cried that Queen Serenity had abandoned them. Some cried treason. Many began to denounce the Earth. The speaker fed into it.

"The Earth will not help us! The monsters that have plagued us have attacked them and we are being held responsible for freak attacks of mysterious creatures. They've called to attention some foolish myth about an ill-fated relationship between the Earth and the Moon! Our Queen, our Princess, and the warriors that protect us would hide the fact. They would tell us that they are still working on diplomatic relations for us to seek refuge there. But the Earthlings fear us, and in the Queen's absence, the Princess is too young to lead us. Our only hope is to gather our last resources and lead an invasion on Earth!"

The strained silence exploded and despite the sudden cacophony of voices and shifting bodies, Rei still managed to be acutely aware of the sound of a snocone hitting the ground; the crystals of ice shifting and moaning against the cobblestone street. She vaguely registered Makoto and Ami talking to the Princess in raised voices as if Serenity couldn't hear them. But Rei's attention was on Minako, hissing into the communicator on her wrist.

"Yes, Artemis. I know that they have the right to protest. Yes. Yes. Artemis! I'm telling you that if you don't get damage control out here within the next five minutes, I can't be held accountable for the consequences!"

Minako snapped her wrist back to her side. Her wide-eyed gaze met Rei's and they held eye contact for one short moment, as though it might be their last.

Someone screamed.

* * *

Beryl floated down the corridors, opening doors at random once she'd thoroughly checked every place she could think of to look for Endymion. She swung open a wide, wooden door and looked into an ornately furnished room where a large man was receiving a shoulder rub from a servant girl. Beryl tolerated the man's rude expression and then shut the door on them.

She had begun to wander down another hallway when the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

'_Metallia?' _She asked.

"_Yessss."_

Beryl threw herself into the next room she came across. It was a small library and she darted around the room to ensure that it was vacant. The stroll around the wooden shelves gave her pause to calm her overwhelmed senses. The sharp spike in energy that the dark being emanated was nearly debilitating, and she had to place her hand on the corner of a desk to steady herself.

"_I need more power."_

Beryl forced her white-knuckled grip from the desk's edge. "Could my people be any more fearful or distrustful?" She asked boldly. "They are controlled by their fears, joining our armies. They're as much ready to attack the Moon as they are ready to overthrow their own Prince for waiting so long to come to a conclusion. I don't know how much more you think they can give you."

"_You will find a way for me to get more power. The light is gaining strength of its own. I must compensate."_

Beryl's brows furrowed. "You told me that the light, the half that binds you, feeds off your host. How is it that your host is powerful enough to sustain the two of you?" Beryl waited in silence for a moment. If it weren't for the sickening dark energy that lingered in the room, she would have thought Metallia had vanished.

The entity finally responded. _"The light feeds off a portion of its host. In the same way that fear and dissent and the souls of those the monsters drain fuels me, the opposite fuels the light."_

Though she was unsurprised, Beryl noted that Metallia had been selective in the information that she had been given. "Couldn't we just kill your host?" She asked. "Wouldn't you be free?"

"_You can't possibly kill her. She's become too strong."_

"How?"

Metallia issued the equivalent of a snort. _"She's found love."_

Beryl's eyes narrowed. "If this woman is so powerful, she must be one of those senshi."

"_Those children are weak comparatively."_

"But if-"

Metallia was through with the questions. _"I must gain more power than the light. Enough to gain my independence. Even if my host could be killed before I become free, then the three of us will start the cycle anew."_

"You are… reborn with your host?"

"_I am bound to the light for all eternity. The host is our carrier."_

"Could the light be separated from your host?" Beryl asked? "Is it possible for _you_ to die?"

"_Ssssilence." _

Metallia's voice lacked tone and inflection, but the being got its point across in the form of a surge of nauseating, dark energy. Beryl blanched white. Her hand gripped the edge of the desk again, and she teetered backwards before regaining her balance. She cowed her head.

"I will find more power for you."

* * *

Endymion's breath came in ragged pants. He had taken a shortcut through the woods and as he crested a slight rise, his foot nearly caught in a tangle of roots and his cape snagged on a low branch. He unclasped his sea-foam colored cape and let it fall to the ground behind him, and then he ran faster. If he was quick enough, the shitennou wouldn't notice that he'd slipped away, and hopefully, even those closest to him wouldn't think him crazy enough to do what he had planned.

"My Prince."

There was only one armed guard standing watch at the landing pad; a decommissioned base that had once supported helicopter traffic but that now housed the shuttles that the Lunarians had given them as a peace offering. The soldier bowed his head sharply and Endymion clapped the young man on the shoulder. Perhaps the guard was too nervous to note Endymion's backward glances and nervous fidgeting.

"I'm taking one of the shuttles for a joyride," he said more confidently than he expected himself capable, "Do you mind?"

"Of course not." The guard saluted his Prince sharply and took a step backwards.

Endymion did not bother with further pleasantries. He ran for the smallest shuttle, the easiest one to pilot, and he threw himself inside.

* * *

Mercury backed away slowly, Serenity lying unconscious in her arms. Around her, dark pillars of smoke muted the light of the Sun and the Earth, and the smell of blood and death was heavy on the still and sooty air. Bodies clogged the street square, and for every youma body that lie torn in two or burned beyond recognition or electrocuted to a blackened husk, there were four to five broken and drained civilian bodies. Mercury could not fight while holding her Princess, but she could easily tell that the youma had become stronger.

Much stronger.

Her comrades had been able to dispatch the majority of the three dozen creatures that had attacked, but not without cost. Mars moved clumsily on a leg that bled profusely from the thigh. Depending on her dagger in lieu of her chain, Venus held one arm close to her side, and from her body language, Mercury was sure that it was broken. Jupiter was being pushed back by the last two youma that still stood.

'_Jupiter-'_

One of the dark cloaked ghouls captured the Jovian by the shoulder as she speared its comrade through the middle with her halberd. It dug its claws into her shoulder. The claws pierced Makoto through her back.

Mercury almost dropped Serenity.

Mars sent a pillar of fire that slammed into Jupiter's attacker and Mercury managed to regain her hold on the Princess. She watched tensely as the youma flailed wildly. A beam of light dropped it to the ground, even as Jupiter sent a bolt of lightening through her halberd and into the monster she'd impaled. Mars, Venus, and Jupiter looked to each other, their brows furrowed, their breathing labored. They were on the edge of exhaustion.

Running on pure adrenaline and the last of her senshi strength, Venus turned and ran towards Serenity. Mars and Jupiter followed. Before they could close in, they pulled up short, their feet skidding across the rubble that filled the streets when Mercury screamed.

"Her eyes," Mars' voice was hoarse and beaten. She watched with her commander and comrade as the brilliant light that shone behind Serenity's eyes enveloped her body; white and all encompassing as though she were trying to transform into a senshi.

A gust of air carried away the soot and smoke that hung over the square. Those brave citizens who had begun to creep back when the youma numbers began to dwindle and damage control began to take control of the situation, began to back away into the shadows and alleys once again, running for their lives when a dozen white figures materialized from the light that surrounded their Princess.

"The white youma." Venus' voice was barely a whisper.

The masked creatures spread out and circled Mercury. She held the Princess tighter and spun in a close circle, looking for an escape.

Jupiter tensed and made to lunge forward. Mars stayed her with a hand around the wrist. The Jovian bristled and turned the point of her halberd at Mars. The Martian flashed the point of her dagger, allowing it to catch the dim light of the Sun and the streetlights.

Venus stayed them both with one, dangerous glare. "Mars is right. Don't approach them," She growled. "We'll put Ami-chan and Serenity at risk if we attack." In her uninjured arm, she adjusted her grip on the Venus dagger.

The leader of the senshi was at a loss. Experience had proven that the white youma would not attack unless they were threatened, and that when they had last engaged the white youma in battle, the creatures had become invincible once they had begun to guard the Princess.

'_Guard the Princess?' _Venus wondered.

The beep of Venus' communicator nearly put her over the edge. "Artemis," She barked.

"A shuttle from Earth!" The cat's voice was fearful and rushed. "It's one of ours. Should we shoot it down?"

"No!"

"Venus?"

Venus remained silent and looked to the smoky sky until she caught the glint of the rapidly descending shuttle.

"Minako?" Mars called her commander's name softly.

Venus kept one eye on what she could see of Serenity between the white youma, and one eye on the descending shuttle. She smirked, one eyebrow raised. "Could things possibly get any _worse_?" It was a jibe that only a Venusian could pull off given the circumstances.

Mars snorted and her posture relaxed in the slightest, but Jupiter lacked the extra sensory abilities to understand why her leader and comrade seemed to be comforted by the approaching shuttle.

The small craft made a rough landing amid the chaos and confusion of arriving crews of firefighters and armed guards. The senshi held their positions as a man clambered out of the small craft and hit the ground running.

"Minako," Artemis' voice over the radio waves was incredulous. "That's not-"

"It is." Venus said.

"Endymion." Jupiter growled. She brandished her halberd the closer he came, running like a man possessed.

"Jupiter," Venus commanded, "let him go."

The Jovian slammed the butt of her weapon against the cobblestones. "What if they attack him? What if that triggers them to-"

"We're about to find out." Venus kept her gaze on the white youma and tightened her grip on her dagger.

As if the space had been left just for him, Endymion slipped through a hole the creatures had left in their formation. He stood wild-eyed in front of Mercury, who struggled to hold onto Serenity in her fear and confusion.

"Give her to me." His words were spoken softly, but left no room for argument. Endymion scooped Serenity away from Mercury as if the Princess weighed nothing at all.

And as soon as she was secure in his arms, the white youma vanished in the same, brilliant, white light with which they'd appeared. Endymion sank to his knees, cradling Serenity to him and burying his head in her neck.

Jupiter rushed forward. She clasped Mercury by the shoulder and pulled her back several paces, as much to give the Prince and the Princess room as to keep the Mercurian away from any further danger. Venus approached slowly, her expression unreadable. Mars limped over last. Her dagger still clenched in her fist, she fell into place alongside her commander.

"Endymion?" Serenity opened her eyes, blinking slowly as though she were waking from a dream, and Endymion pulled back to allow her to gain her bearings. At first, the Princess smiled, until she realized that she wasn't alone with her Prince and that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.

Her gaze turned out towards her senshi; beaten and bruised and bloodied. She looked up into the sooty sky and out to firefighters that fought to control a blaze. She saw armed guards tending to unmoving bodies. She saw blood in the street, and she saw corpses of frightening creatures that caused her breath to stick in her throat.

Endymion held her closer, tried to refocus her attention back on him. "Serenity-"

"I… I did this, didn't I?" The Princess' voice was small and lost, wavering and on the edge of tears. She shook in Endymion's arms. "I thought they were just dreams. Terrible, terrible dreams, but they were _memories_. They-"

"Serenity!" Endymion became more forceful in his attempt to calm her, and it only had the opposite effect.

"Don't look at me!" Serenity's voice rose to a shrill scream and she pushed him away violently, scrambling to her feet on shaky legs. From this vantage point, the extent of the damage was more apparent. The Princess stifled a scream. She hinged at her waist and fell to her knees. Her body shook and she sobbed, repeating the same thing over and over,

"I'm a monster!"

* * *

Preview, Chapter 24: Tempest

"You can't stay here." Venus said.

"What would you have me do?" Endymion's words came off as desperate and it shook Venus to see the Prince become so unraveled.

"I don't know, but I can't imagine that your shitennou know that you're _here_, and if they did, I'd hate to think what might happen if they decided to come and get you."

Endymion snorted. "I seriously doubt that my shitennou are of any concern of yours."

Venus took a step closer. What she lacked in height, she made up for with an icy determination. "Are you prepared for war, Endymion?"

"Are you saying I can't control my people?"

"I'm saying-"

Mars came to stand between them, thrusting herself into the small space that shimmered with the force of their wills. Venus clenched her fists, thinking that Mars would try to protect her from confrontation with Endymion, but Mars wasn't looking at her, she was looking at Endymion.

"The harp," Mars said to him flatly. "Make it stop."

Her words seemed out of place; they had been too consumed with their argument, but now that they listened, the distinct sound of harp strings was growing louder from behind Serenity's closed doors. It was felt as much as it was heard; a dark and foreboding sickness somehow lurked in the undertones of the music.


	24. Chapter 24

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 24: Tempest  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Endymion paced across Serenity's antechamber. He was dressed in a long tunic of silver and gold, and very much looked the part of Lunarian nobility. The peoples of the Moon had been too panicked to have noticed his arrival during the chaos and confusion of the youma attack at the festival, but nonetheless, he had been dressed in Lunarian garb in order to blend in and avoid suspicion.

In the hours since the youma attack, several members of the royal families, to include those who had staged the protest at the festival, were trying to form a coup in the absence of their Queen. There had been riots across several of the Tent Cities. Rumors were spreading like wildfire; misinformation about everything from the Princess to the Queen to the Earthlings to the senshi had been mixed with half-truths and actual facts. People were rushing to arm themselves and many young men had stormed the Palace, demanding to join what meager force made up the Lunarian army, even if the honor guard had mainly been only for show for the past millennia during times of peace.

The Lunarian reaction wasn't much different from what was taking place on Earth.

Endymion didn't seem to be thinking of any of it. In his anxious circuit around the room, he often paused at the door to Serenity's private chamber. His fists would clench until they'd turn white while he listened as she sobbed in the next room. When he reached his limit, he'd continue pacing only to repeat the process.

Venus, Mars and Jupiter stood stiffly at the other end of the antechamber. Mercury and Luna were in conference in the small room across the hall, furiously working to shut down access to the Eternal Main System. Once the link between the wildly varying fairytales had been made to the Terran myth about an ill-fated love between the Earth and the Moon, the Queen's advisor had been weary of the people finding other supporting information.

Venus raised her hand before her and flexed her arm in a slow, punching motion to check the range and flexibility in her previously broken arm. The limb felt like it was on fire as the regeneration process took place. After a moment, she returned it to her side restlessly.

Finally, her hands clenched at her side and she stepped into Endymion's path as he paced closer. He did not look up until he nearly ran into her, and she spoke to him flatly, as though she were trying to talk someone off a ledge.

"You can't stay here." Venus said.

"What would you have me do?" Endymion's voice was desperate and it shook Venus to see the Prince become so unraveled.

"I don't know, but I can't imagine that your shitennou know that you're _here_, and if they did, I'd hate to think what might happen if they decided to come and get you."

Endymion snorted. "I seriously doubt that my shitennou are of any concern of yours."

Venus took a step closer. What she lacked in height, she made up for with an icy determination. "Are you prepared for war, Endymion?"

"Are you saying I can't control my people?"

"I'm saying-"

Mars came to stand between them, thrusting herself into the small space that shimmered with the force of their wills. Venus clenched her fists, thinking that Mars would try to protect her from confrontation with Endymion, but Mars wasn't looking at her, she was looking at Endymion.

"The harp," Mars said to him flatly. "Make it stop."

Her words seemed out of place; they had been too consumed with their argument, but now that they listened, the distinct sound of harp strings was growing louder from behind Serenity's closed doors. It was felt as much as it was heard; a dark and foreboding sickness somehow lurked in the undertones of the music.

Endymion and Venus dropped their argument without so much as a parting glance, and all three of them bolted to the door, nearly getting caught in a bottleneck as three hands grasped for the handle. They spilled into Serenity's personal room, Jupiter right behind them.

Endymion was the only one that didn't pause at the eerie glow that seeped from behind Serenity's dark eyes. He threw himself onto the bed, tackled the Princess, and the harp went flying. It crashed onto the floor and skidded across the smooth surface but it did not break.

Mars stared at the instrument for a long time.

* * *

Outside the Edo palace, the guard that had seen Endymion off hurried to meet his Prince when the shuttle returned to the landing pad. His eager smile faded when the door to the craft opened and he was met instead with a dark haired woman in a crimson sailor fuku. He didn't even have the chance to scream.

Serenity shifted from foot to foot nervously as Mars, Venus, and Endymion disembarked the shuttle. "Was that really necessary?" She asked.

Mars looked over her shoulder. "He'll live." She replied before continuing to drag the unconscious body behind the shuttle.

After a visual scan of the area, Venus turned to Endymion. The Prince helped Serenity down the metal steps and the young couple looked at her with quiet defiance. Despite the Princess' earlier instability – they knew all too well now that they had prevented her from summoning the youma - Serenity now seemed calm and collected. Venus wasn't sure what to think anymore.

"Say your goodbyes." She barked. She didn't wait for a response. She turned on her heel and marched away to give them some semblance of privacy. Mars followed.

The two senshi retreated to an overgrown treeline that had grown unchecked around the rarely used and unkempt landing pad. They took up watch where a paver pathway led from the distant Palace and they watched intently as Endymion and Serenity walked slowly, hand in hand.

The couple walked to the other end of the pad, where the cracked and crumbling concrete gave way to a small gazebo that overlooked a pond crowded with lily pads. Mars and Venus could not hear the words they shared, but they could tell from Endymion and Serenity's expressions that it was of a serious nature – more than just sweet nothings and love-filled promises.

Their silent guard duty gave way to Venus' own worries. Serenity had insisted on returning to Earth with Endymion, even though she knew, and willingly accepted, that she could not stay long. Venus could understand that the Princess wanted to spend every possible moment with the one she loved, but she couldn't understand the whims behind Serenity's violent mood swings any more than she could refuse Serenity's orders. Although Venus was first and foremost charged with the Princess' protection, she was not her keeper, and could only do her best to keep Serenity safe in any given situation. She found herself wondering if leaving Mercury and Jupiter behind to continue to work alongside Luna instead of taking them along for added protection was the right decision, but then, the nagging feeling that an entire _army_ of senshi could not protect any of them from what was to come was nearly overwhelming.

She felt Mars' hand on her shoulder and thought her partner was trying to ease her worries.

She was wrong.

The Martian's skills of aural detection had kicked in. It was a warning. Venus heard them coming before she actually saw them; the discontent chatter of a youth and his superior. Mars and Venus sank into the trees and waited until Zoicite and Jadeite came closer. The two shitennou were searching for their Prince, and they were about to find him.

"Master-"

Their attack had been uncommunicated and yet inherently understood. Mars and Venus leapt from their hiding places. The golden warrior captured Zoicite and the crimson warrior captured Jadeite. With matching daggers held to the throats of the shitennou, the senshi dragged the two men into the treeline without a fight.

Standing behind him with her dagger hovering near Zoicite's neck, Venus was half a head shorter, but she was not at any disadvantage. "We'll have Serenity out of here in a moment." She said calmly.

"You won't." Zoicite replied. Venus pushed her dagger against his skin. "Kunzite and Nephrite are headed this way."

"We'll release Jadeite to provide us a distraction." Venus said by means of negotiation.

Zoicite grunted his acknowledgement. Mars waited a full heartbeat to release the youngest shitennou, and even then, the tip of her dagger was held to his back.

"Go." Zoicite ordered Jadeite. "Find Kunzite and Nephrite. Distract them and lead them away. Tell them nothing of what you saw here."

The blond youth opened his mouth as if to protest. Venus pressed her blade into Zoicite's skin. A thin trail of blood rolled down his neck.

"Go. Now!" Zoicite barked.

Jadeite turned and took to his heels. Mars tensed, her body poised as a hunter waiting to pursue its prey.

"He will do as he's been told."

Zoicite's soft voice unwound Mars only marginally, and when she turned back, she saw that Venus had released Zoicite and stepped away. Mars knew that Venus had not wanted to be so forceful with her one time ally, yet at the same time, her dagger was still held tightly.

"You need to control your Princess." Zoicite spat as he dabbed at the small cut on his neck. "She should not be here on Earth."

"I could say the same of your control over your Prince." Venus cocked a hand on her hip. "Where do you think _he's_ been for the past five hours?"

"Venus," if it hadn't been clear from the way she had held him a knifepoint, no matter how much out of necessity it had been, the cold formality in which Zoicite addressed her was nonetheless telling. "Do you believe in this myth about their ill-fated love?"

Venus' teeth clacked together as she shut her mouth, her gaze distant and unfocused. Zoicite thought she might never respond. The sound of crickets calling to the falling dusk and the distant sounds of Endymion and Serenity's conversation were the only sounds for a long while.

"I was raised on the fairytale." When Venus finally responded, her voice was as quiet as the crickets and just as mournful. "I never would have thought that…" she trailed off. Her hands clenched tightly at her sides and her gaze hardened, focusing on Serenity and Endymion. "I don't know _what_ to think anymore."

Zoicite's perpetual frown softened into something almost unreadable. He joined Venus in watching the couple that had already caused so much trouble for both their peoples; whether or not it had been foretold.

"In the meantime," he said, "I think we should keep them separated. Your Princess is not safe here on Earth."

"She's not safe on the Moon, either."

Zoicite nearly recoiled at Venus' sudden honesty. He sobered and looked down at his gloved hands. "Neither is my master safe here."

"None of us are safe."

Venus and Zoicite turned to Mars. Neither dared her to elaborate.

They already knew.

After a moment, Venus tossed her hair over a shoulder. The flippant gesture was more of a worried distraction. "I don't know how we'll keep them from sneaking off to see one another. When they're determined, they seem to find ways to meet."

Zoicite was quiet for a long moment. Finally, he pulled a small box from the inside of his cape. He stared at it for some time, tracing its curved edges almost reluctantly. Finally, he held it out for Venus.

"Take this." His voice seemed forced.

Venus took the polished, lacquered box from him cautiously. She turned it around in her hands. When her fingers pried at its top, Zoicite lunged forward. Mars hurried close, but Zoicite only kept his hand pressed around Venus' to keep the box closed.

"Do not open it." His voice carried an icy warning. "Let your Princess do it. Have it delivered by someone she trusts."

Venus' brow furrowed. "Why," she demanded.

"The orgel will play a song, a song that will make her forget the one she loves."

The golden warrior snarled. "How can I be sure you're telling the truth?"

"Truth?" There was pain in Zoicite's voice and Venus recoiled.

In many ways, she had betrayed the shitennou, Zoicite most of all. "Zoicite-"

He interrupted her sharply, drawing himself to his full height. "I swear my honesty on the life of my master."

The two looked at each other for a long moment, Zoicite's fingers nearly cutting off circulation to Venus' hand. Finally, she nodded. He released her and took a step back. For some time, the three guardians watched their respective charges. Zoicite played with the edges of his cape as dark clouds began to build on the horizon.

"I can no longer delay my master's return to the Palace." He looked to Venus, and to the dagger she still held in her hand. "Will you allow me to approach them?"

Venus willed her weapon to fade out of existence. "We'll go together." She said, and she began walking.

Under the gazebo, Endymion and Serenity were standing close together, their bodies touching intimately, and yet they were still in the midst of what seemed a heated conversation. Endymion heard them coming, and he urged Serenity for silence, stepping in front of her as Zoicite, Venus, and Mars approached.

"Our time is up, isn't it." Serenity's voice was strong and certain.

Endymion straightened under the weight of Zoicite's unreadable gaze. He turned back to the Princess. "I have to return to the Palace, Serenity. I have to do what I can to save both our planets."

Serenity smiled sadly. "I understand. And I must do the same." She turned back to the three guardians. "Will you allow us to say our goodbye in private?"

There was something in Serenity's soft, yet commanding voice, something that none of them had ever seen, save perhaps Endymion himself. Venus bowed her head in deference. Zoicite seemed torn.

"Tell the others that the guard told you I had taken one of the Lunarian shuttles out for a joyride." Endymion told him.

Zoicite frowned. "What guard?"

Serenity narrowed her eyes in Mars' direction. Mars inspected the toes of her red pumps.

"Forget about it." Endymion said. "Just know that I'll be right behind you, and tell the others that we'll hold conference immediately upon my return."

Zoicite's sour expression was unchanged, yet he bowed to his Prince. He turned to Venus, not necessarily trusting her, but still wanting someone to guard Endymion in his absence.

"We'll wait for Serenity in the shuttle." She said, more to the Prince and the Princess. She cast a glance to Zoicite. "They'll be safe."

With a flourish of his cape, Zoicite spun on his heel. Venus and Mars followed. The shitennou walked down the pathway that headed back to the Palace, stiff and quiet as though trying to extend his senses. The senshi climbed the metal steps of the shuttle quietly.

After entering the dark cavern of the shuttle, Mars followed Venus into the cockpit where, with a determined frown, the golden warrior flipped several levers and pushed a green button on an auxiliary control panel. After a moment, the craft's speakers began to play the captured audio; eavesdropping on the conversation between Endymion and Serenity a hundred feet away.

"You have to promise me," Endymion's voice was thin and tinny, "you have to promise me that no matter what happens, on my planet or on yours, that you'll be brave. You can't give in to the darkness inside you."

Venus pushed several other buttons and a heads up display appeared on top of the windshield, zooming in to show tears that were brimming in Serenity's eyes. She shifted in his hold, his hands tight around her upper arms.

"Endymion-"

"Promise me, Serenity."

The Princess' lower lip trembled for a moment, and then she buried her head in Endymion's chest. He tightened his arms around her and pulled her close.

"Serenity, I-"

Mars stepped forward and killed the audio. The heads up display minimized itself into a small square in the upper right hand corner of the windshield.

"What are you doing?" Venus hissed.

Mars didn't respond. Her gaze rose above the shingle roof of the gazebo that protected their Princess from the coming elements. Against the backdrop of white capped mountains above, clouds collected on the horizon, crowding the mountain peaks and turning the sky darker and darker shades of blue. An angry bolt of lightening forked across the sky, turning the clouds a churning, murky grey.

"I've never seen a thunderstorm before." Mars said quietly.

"Never?" Venus seemed to have lost her prior irritation with her second in command.

The crimson warrior turned to her commander with a raised brow. "Rain on Mars?"

Venus snorted. Somewhere in the distance, thunder rumbled like an earthquake. Serenity and Endymion looked up, startled by the sound. Endymion stole a kiss.

The winds picked up, and the leaves of the trees turned their bottoms to the sky. The first fat drops of rain were metallic exclamations on the roof of the shuttle. The clouds rushed closer on the winds and the rain came in a sudden torrent that could not possibly be maintained for any length of time.

Sheets of water slid down the shuttle's windshield. Through the blurred and hazy view, Venus watched the Prince and the Princess. The orgel was held tightly in her gloved hands.

Under the protection of the gazebo, in one another's arms, Serenity and Endymion didn't seem to notice the tempest in the slightest.

* * *

In the Lunarian palace, the door that led to the hallway was kept cracked open so that the four guardians, who stood at opposing corners of the small servant's room, could keep watch on Serenity's door. Each woman pointedly avoided eye contact with one another. Nor did anyone dare to look at the small, blue box that sat on the desk that was pushed up against the wall.

"It'll make her forget him?" Ami asked.

"That's what Zoicite claims." Minako said.

"How can we trust him?" Makoto spat, "or any of those Earthlings?"

"What choice do we have left?" Minako's voice teetered precariously. "We need to keep Serenity and Endymion apart. Maybe we can at least delay the…" she shot her gaze towards the window and tossed her dark hair over a shoulder. "I don't want to do it either, you know."

"I'll do it."

Minako, Makoto, and Rei turned to Ami.

"He said it should be done by someone she trusts, right?" Ami's hands fidgeted, clasped in front of her. On the other end of the room, Makoto tensed.

Minako cleared her throat. "Ami-chan, are you-"

"She trusts me the most." The Mercurian said, her words rushed and tangled. "Even now, I think I'm the one closest to her."

Makoto pushed off the wall and slipped out through the door. She didn't turn around, not even when her commander ordered her to.

Ami seemed not to notice. She walked to the desk and picked up the orgel. "I'm the one closest to her," she repeated softly, "besides Endymion."

* * *

Ami didn't go to Serenity immediately. First, she wanted to right a wrong she'd long left unaccounted. She knew that it was dangerous to venture outside of the palace walls, yet it was the only place Ami had yet to look for Makoto. Although the senshi had stopped keeping guard around the palace and Tent Cities; both to concentrate on staying closer to the Princess, and for fear that the presence of the senshi in public would do more harm than good, Makoto would easily be able to get around in her civilian persona without being recognized.

There was only one place Ami could think Makoto might go. With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, she walked down the winding streets of the main Lunarian city, clutching a small, velvet pouch she had procured from her room before setting out to find Makoto.

She paused under an arching palm tree in the center of the square where she had met her friends on many occasions. The fronds of the palm above were yellowed and drooping. The air was thin; the Eternal Main System was failing to maintain proper life support levels for the population. She logged the information in her mind systematically, but her eyes scanned the upper level of the Crown Karaoke building. She couldn't see any movement behind the small, dusty windows of the apartment.

She knew that didn't mean anything.

Ami's gaze darted to the corners of the square. The hour was late. Most people were asleep. She raised an eyebrow at a Venusian and Martian couple who staggered down the street together. A small group of chattering Lunarian teens exited the Crown and Ami slid behind the trunk of the palm as they passed. A few people sat under the lamps of a street side café. She knew none of them were interested in the anxious Mercurian who so clearly seemed to be a stood-up lover.

It's what she suspected Makoto felt as well.

She thought about turning around, about walking away, about pretending that it didn't matter if Makoto was in that apartment or not.

She activated her communicator anyway, and spun the dial for an application she'd created for use in battle, an application that could track the movements of any of the senshi. In a moment, the communicator projected a faint display above it. The outline of the Crown was a thick, black line and inside its confines, there was a green dot that represented Makoto. Next to the green dot, there was a grey one, the color that indicated a civilian presence.

Ami knew the civilian was Motoki. She clutched the velvet pouch in her hand. She fought her instinct to flee. She turned off the scan function on her communicator and strode through the front doors of the Crown. There was a clerk at the front desk who looked at her with a raised eyebrow. From the hallway, the muffled sound of bass speakers and the feedback of a mic reached the small lobby.

"What can I do you for?" The clerk asked, his gaze lingering on the Mercurian.

Ami drew herself up to the counter and slid the velvet pouch across its top. "This is for the woman that Motoki-kun is with." Her voice was stiff and cold, and sounded foreign to her own ears.

"Can't it wait?" The clerk asked, jabbing a thumb to the stairwell that led to the apartment above. "I think they're busy, if ya know what I mean."

Ami fought against the burning tears gathering in her eyes. "Leave it at his apartment door." She instructed before turning and heading for the exit. She needed the outside air, no matter how thin and insufficient it was. She didn't respond to the clerk's call.

She was overdue to see Serenity, where she was sure, without a doubt, that her heart would only get broken again.

* * *

There was no telling anymore who one would see when they met Serenity. It could be the fearful and morose Princess. It could be the calm, cool woman who understood her duty. Or, it could be the small shred left of the girl that Ami remembered from the moment she forgot her resentment of becoming a senshi, the moment she first fell in love.

She'd been in love twice, now.

She'd had her heart broken just as many times.

The door to the Princess' room opened soon after her tentative knock. On the other side of the door, Serenity smiled. "Ami-chan!"

The woman before her right now, Ami realized, was the last of the three Serenitys. This was Usagi, a name coined for her civilian disguise by their leader, an exuberant karaoke singer and a blissfully normal girl.

Serenity took Ami into her arms, hugging her in a vice-like grip. She gave the Mercurian a kiss on the cheek, and then another that partially captured the corner of her mouth.

Although she trembled slightly, Ami recognized it for the friendly gesture that it was. She tried not to think about Makoto.

Serenity pulled her farther into her personal chamber, and with hands on her shoulders, made Ami sit at a table which had been prepared for the Princess' lunch. It was several hours cold. The Princess' harp sat next to the tray. Serenity set aside the meats and fruits, and left the dessert behind.

"It's not much," she said shyly, "but perhaps we could share?"

Ami pushed her hair behind the rim of her ear. Given the errand that had brought her here, her stomach turned at the thought of food. She tried to smile. "That would be wonderful."

The Princess sat and pulled her chair close to the edge of the table. She never stopped smiling, even as she pushed a cake into her mouth that should have warranted two bites instead of one.

"Thanks for visiting me," she said between mouthfuls. "I know they're concerned for my safety, and that's why they want me to stay on top floors of the Palace, but I miss you guys." She beamed. "I've missed _you_, Ami-chan. Nearly as much as I've missed Endymion."

Ami blushed hotly. She pushed a scone around the edge her plate. This version of Serenity seemed to have filtered the exact details of the state of her government, or current lack thereof, and seemed to live in a state of ignorant bliss.

Ami envied her.

"I've missed you too, Serenity-chan." She finally managed. "I've… I've brought you something."

The Princess popped a cookie into her mouth. Her eyes widened and she leaned forward on her elbows. "I like surprises, but the best one is just that you came to see me."

Ami's grip on the orgel faltered. It was only Serenity's exuberant insistence to know what she hid under the edge of the table that got her to raise the small box to the tabletop.

"A music box." Serenity's breath caught in the back of her throat. "I haven't seen once since I was a child." She reached across the table. Ami pulled her hands back into her lap and held them tightly.

The Princess turned the ornate box over in her hands, inspecting the intricate design etched into it before setting it back down gently. With the tips of her thumbs, she opened the top.

Ami held her breath.

A sound like a toy piano lurched to life as the hinges clicked open, and the strained sounds wavered off beat, playing a ghostly, familiar tune that Ami tried hard to place.

Serenity shut her eyes and smiled. "How fitting that it would play a song from my childhood."

Ami's palms began to sweat. "Where is the song from?"

"It was an old fairytale," Serenity replied. "About two star-crossed lovers."

Ami turned white. The song fell into place; the Lunarian version of the interstellar fairy tale.

"Ami-chan, what's wrong?"

The tinny notes continued as Serenity leaned across the table with a worried expression.

"N… nothing, Serenity-chan."

The Princess didn't pick up on Ami's frightened hesitance. She turned thoughtful. "You know… this song reminds me of…" she paused for a moment, as though she were trying to search her memory. "Endymion."

"Endymion?" Ami asked, her voice nearly inaudible.

"He… he's the most wonderful man I've ever met." Serenity's words were slurred, as though she were slowly becoming intoxicated. "He reminds me… a lot of you, Ami-chan. He's considerate, and thoughtful," she batted her eyes, "and he's _so_ good looking." She giggled. "You know, I've always cherished your friendship, as much as I cherish my love for… my love for…" Serenity frowned.

"Endymion." Ami forced the name off the tip of her tongue.

"Yes," Serenity sighed. "Endymion." She held her finger to her chin. "If it weren't for Endymion, and for you, and my other friends, I'm afraid that I would have fallen to this darkness inside me much earlier." Her blissful smile slowly turned downwards. Her gaze fell to the table, passed over the few remaining desserts, and landed on her harp. She reached out for it with a slow and steady hand. Her eyes became tinted with an eerie glow.

Ami's hands darted from underneath the table and she flicked the lid of the orgel shut. Its reverberant notes hung in the air for a long moment.

"Ami-chan?" Serenity blinked. She was back to herself again.

The Mercurian's hands shook, as much at the fear of Serenity's shifting personalities as the realization that what she was doing was wrong; Serenity's love for Endymion wasn't what would spell their destruction. Keeping the two of them apart was even more dangerous.

"I'm sorry, Serenity." Ami clutched the orgel. "I'm sorry." The hinges groaned under her fingers. She jumped to her feet and rushed out the door.

* * *

Makoto rolled out from underneath Motoki's shoulder. She sat up, swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and examined the communicator on her wrist.

Motoki rolled onto his side to face her, though his gaze was avoidant. "You have to go?" Makoto didn't respond. She hadn't said much of anything at all since she'd arrived; despondent and avoidant. He forced his voice to remain unaffected even when she rose and began to gather her clothing. "I'll walk you to the door."

The Jovian was efficient in everything she did. Motoki had only pulled his boxers on and thrown a crumpled shirt over his head while she was completely dressed and lacing up her boots. She joined him at the door, and she barely waited for him to open it for her.

"Wait," he said, his eye catching something on tattered doormat. "There's something here." He picked up a small velvet pouch. For the first time since she'd arrived, Makoto looked interested in something. He examined the small bag.

He read aloud the inscription on top. "From, Mercury."

The pouch was snatched from his hands. It shook in Makoto's hold. Motoki stood in the doorway, though he knew that his small frame would not stop the Jovian if she decided she wanted to leave. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"How important is this _Mercury_ if you keep coming back to me? You told me she came first."

Makoto would not meet his gaze. "She did."

"But?"

Makoto exhaled a deep breath. "What does it matter?" She spoke as though her words tasted bitter. "Besides, it's in my blood to keep on moving. I used to be a nomad, after all."

Motoki's brows met. "I thought you were of a noble family. That's what Minako-chan said. At the ball, months ago."

Makoto would not answer. He wondered just how much he really knew about her. Motoki knew that she was slipping through his fingers, and he threw his arms around her. Although she was tall, he still had a couple inches on her, and he pulled her close to him.

"I could show you what you're missing," he said. "You wouldn't regret living a life in one place if it were with me."

She allowed herself to be held for a long moment, her eyes shut, her expression soft. "You're a sweet man, Motoki. In another time and place, maybe it would have worked out better for us."

He tightened his hold on her. "Maybe it still will. One day."

Makoto smiled a bittersweet smile. She slipped away from his embrace and shouldered past him. He wore a crestfallen expression, but did not restrain her. It was only an offhanded thought that made him call out to her.

"Mako-chan!"

The Jovian turned to look over her shoulder, her expression undecided in a way that he'd never seen on her before.

"Running from one relationship to the next doesn't really keep you from feeling lonely, does it?" he asked.

Makoto cracked a small smile. "No," she said. "It doesn't." She turned and trudged down the steps.

Motoki wondered if he'd ever see her again.

* * *

When it came to Makoto, Ami's courage had ended the moment she had left that velvet pouch at the Crown. She knew she couldn't avoid the Jovian; Minako had called a meeting to discuss what had happened with Serenity and the orgel, and she would have to face Makoto again no matter what. She only hoped that her ploy of arriving to the meeting five minutes late would have given Makoto sufficient time to already get to the room where the others already were, where she would be unable to ask her any questions. Ami wasn't ready to deal with the consequences of her passive forwardness just yet.

She placed her fingers on the handle of the servant's quarters across from Serenity's room. That's when Makoto blindsided her.

The hallway was long, yet Ami hadn't seen Makoto coming, and was startled when her familiar tall figure loomed next to her. Ami looked up into Makoto's unreadable gaze, and the Jovian grabbed her wrist to keep her from opening the door. Ami pressed herself back against the threshold, wishing she could fade through the cracks in the wood. The hinges creaked as she leaned against them, retreating from Makoto's quiet intensity.

"Ami-"

The Mercurian squinted and suddenly, the door gave way behind her. She was vaguely aware of a scuffle; someone behind the door jumped out of the way just as the familiar strength of Makoto's arms wrapped around her middle to prevent her from hitting the floor.

When Ami dared to open her eyes, she found Makoto's angry expression inches away from her face, though it was directed at someone behind her. She turned in Makoto's embrace to see Rei standing to the side of the door with arched eyebrows.

"I thought I heard something…" Rei said.

Minako stepped closer, a ballast against the tension, though more to protect Rei, for she knew that Makoto wasn't angry at Ami.

Makoto scowled at her commander and her comrade before she uprighted herself, gently setting Ami back on her feet. She strode into the room and crossed her arms, leaning against a corner. She kept Ami centered in her narrow gaze.

Minako turned to the Mercurian, eager to brush off whatever lover's spat they had interrupted. "Your findings." She prompted.

Ami clenched her hands at her sides and tried to compose herself, acutely aware of Makoto's intense and unreadable gaze. "The orgel didn't have the effect that we had hoped for." She finally said.

Minako's brows furrowed. "I understand you aborted the mission, and shut the orgel before you could have known for certain."

"One of Serenity's other sides appeared." Ami snapped. She stiffened and stood tall.

"We could have dealt with an attack if she had summoned the youma." Minako barked.

"And she still wouldn't have forgotten Endymion!" Ami stepped closer to her commander in challenge.

"How can you be so sure?"

Ami sobered. "I think… I think her love for Endymion is actually her strength."

Minako shifted her weight. "But the fairytale-"

"The myth states that their love is ill-fated." Ami clarified sharply. "I'm not saying that their _union _is not the herald of whatever fate awaits us. I'm saying that her love for him actually tries to subdue whatever evil lies inside of her."

Minako's jaw tensed to ready a challenging retort, but the barely-there touch of Rei's hand on her elbow made her pause. She turned to the knowing gaze of her second in command.

Rei shook her head. "I think Ami-chan's right." Her nose wrinkled when her commander's stiff posture indicated that further evidence was needed, and Rei continued. "I feel that, if the black youma are born of the darkness inside her, then the white youma are born of Serenity's purest thoughts, of her love for Endymion."

"And yet _they_ possess just as terrible a power as the black youma." Minako said.

"She can't control them." Rei responded. "She is unbalanced."

"Unbalanced?"

"She is not supposed to be this way." The Martian's gaze grew distant. "Perhaps the next time around, she will have better control over the war that wages inside of her."

"The next time around?" Minako reached out a shaky hand. "Rei?"

Rei shook her head. Even under the gaze of her commander and comrades, she refused to extrapolate.

Minako straightened. She turned her watchful gaze to her other subordinates. "We will abandon this mission. I will have the orgel returned to Zoicite. This meeting is dismissed."

Ami lunged after Minako and Rei, eager to follow with them, but she was again halted by Makoto's hand around her wrist. She stared at the door as it swung shut, and for a long moment, the two women stood in a frozen silence in the small room.

Makoto reached into her pocket and pulled out an amber pendant. Ami winced when she saw the jewel in combination with the Jovian's hurt expression.

"Why did you leave this for me?" Makoto demanded. She did not release the pressure on Ami's wrist, and only stepped closer when the small woman would not respond. "Open your eyes, Ami." Her words were forceful, but not angry. "Tell me why you gave me the same pendant Serenity gave to Endymion."

Ami cracked an eye open. "I didn't give it to you just because she gave one to Endymion. She didn't even know the meaning behind the gift. To her, it was just a trinket."

Makoto's eyes narrowed. "Then tell me what it's for."

Despite herself, the Mercurian's cheeks colored. "It is a… intention of belonging."

"What?" Makoto's voice seemed to have lost its edge. She released the intensity of her grip on Ami.

Ami's blush rose in volume. "It's called a Mati. I know that Jovians don't have quite the same concept. It is the equivalent of an engagement ring. A promise of feelings, a-"

Makoto released Ami completely. She stepped away and scratched at the back of her neck. Ami jumped forward as though she were afraid of the space that suddenly separated them. The Jovian turned the amber pendant around in her fingers.

Ami cowed her head. "I only wanted you to know how I felt for you."

Makoto's fingers tightened around the jewel until its ornate edges dug into the flesh of her palm. "I don't think I deserve such a thing."

Ami took another step closer, moving around the pendant that Makoto held in front of her. "I don't think it's your place to tell me who deserves my love."

A bittersweet smile tugged at the edges of Makoto's lips. "You were always first in my heart." She reached out, and her fingers cupped Ami's cheek.

The smaller woman leaned into the gentle touch. "And I know that does not negate the feelings you hold for… for _him_."

Makoto shook her head, serious once more. "No more than it negates your feelings for Serenity. One never forgets a love, Ami-chan, and as much as I fell for you when I first saw you walking through the Jovian jungle, I've liked you. But…

"But you've been taught to keep on moving, haven't you?" Ami shut her eyes, trying to hold back the tears that threatened. "It was you who taught me that one could love many. Even if you hadn't intended to, I learned that from you, Mako-chan."

Makoto looked down to the jewel in her hand and scowled at it. "And yet you would still chose to bind yourself to-"

Ami reached out and closed her fingers over Makoto's, wrapping them tight around the Mati. She pushed the Jovian's hand away from her, and placed her own stiffly at her sides. "You do not have to wear it." She said softly. "You can doubt it all you want, but I will not allow you to return it to me." She stood as tall as she could draw herself. "Nothing will change the way I feel for you, Makoto."

Ami tried to smile. Failing that, she turned and walked away. When she opened the door and stepped through the threshold, she hit the hallway running.

The image of the Mati burned itself into her retina as Makoto listened to Ami's footfalls until she could hear them no longer. Suddenly, she thrust the pendant into her pocket, and she took off after the Mercurian.

She caught Ami trying to shut herself into her room. Makoto easily shouldered her way through the door and slammed it shut behind her. She threw her arms around Ami and pressed the smaller woman against the wall.

Ami embraced her tightly. "Mako-"

"Let the world crumble around us," Makoto barked, her voice betraying her, "I don't care, as long as I'm with you, right now."

Pressed close to Makoto's chest, Ami didn't see the Mati around the Jovian's neck, where she thought it belonged.

And she didn't care.

* * *

Minako woke with a start. Rei was thrashing wildly next to her. She had kicked the covers off, and her expression was a twisted grimace. It was not the first time Minako had found her like this, but it did not diminish the fear she felt; both for Rei, and for herself. Her hand hovered inches away from the Martian's shoulder, though she knew enough not to touch her.

"Rei." Her voice was a soft whisper, and soon, her subordinate's thrashing diminished to jerks and fearful flinching. When Rei became still enough for Minako to safely lean in closer, she whispered into her ear, "Rei, come back to me."

Finally, the Martian stilled completely. The sweat across her brow glistened in the light that bled through the crack in the heavy curtains. Slowly, her breathing evened to a normal pace, her erratic heartbeat gradually returning to baseline under Minako's hand that hovered over her chest.

For a long moment, Minako hoped that Rei had been lulled back into sleep, when suddenly, the Martian's eyes shot open, and when she saw the haunted understanding in Rei's dark eyes, she knew that sleep would be a long time coming.

"Our time is short." Rei spoke with a voice that didn't belong to her.

"You dreamt of the end that the fairytale foretold, didn't you."

In the quiet darkness of the room, Minako once again hoped that Rei had fallen back asleep; she knew that she did not want to know what Rei had seen.

"Yes," Rei finally responded, "I did."

Her own version of defiance, Minako smirked and swept a sweaty lock of Rei's dark hair away from her forehead. "Maybe it won't be so bad," she said flippantly. "Maybe she'll spare-"

"It'll be complete and total _destruction_!" Rei's cry hitched in the back of her throat. "She'll annihilate her own people! The Moon will perish. Even the Earth won't escape her wrath!"

"Rei…" Minako's hand hovered over the Martian's shoulder and Rei flinched. Minako knew not to touch her, no matter how much she wanted to. She wanted to share Rei's burden, to see Rei's twisted visions of the future, but she didn't want to incur Rei's wrath for forcing it from her, either.

"Is there anything?" she asked softly. "Anything we can do to-"

"All we can possibly do is delay the inevitable." Rei replied resignedly. "Serenity is far too out of balance to stop herself, and the energies that swirl around the Palace are threatening to tear her apart."

Minako inhaled a shaky breath. "And after she destroys us all, what then?"

Rei turned to face her commander. "She will be reborn."

"Reborn?" Minako's voice was incredulous. "And the ginzuishou?"

"It will still be inside of her. The battle between the dark, the light, and its host will continue to be waged."

"And when she's reborn? Who will protect her?"

"We will."

Minako's gaze narrowed. There was only so much she could take. She reached out for Rei. The Martian swatted her hand away, pinned it to the pillows, and met her commander's challenging glare. After a long moment, Minako relented and drew her hands away, though her sharp features softened.

"Will we be the same?" Minako asked, her bottom lip trembling. "In the next life?"

Rei scowled. "I do not _see_ the future. I can only _feel_."

Minako smirked at her irritable subordinate. She rolled onto her back and stared at the dark ceiling. She sighed dramatically. "She… Serenity was the ginzuishou's host a thousand years ago, too. Wasn't she."

"I believe so, yes." Rei's irritation at her commander had lessened somewhat.

"And if _we_ were there then, too… we failed to stop it that time as well."

Rei's fingers clutched at the sheets tightly. "We will not fail the next time. We will not repeat these mistakes in the next life."

Minako rolled back onto her side. "Is that a prediction?"

"No," Rei glared fiercely at her commander. "It's a _promise_."

They stared at each other through the darkness, the soft sounds of their breathing filling the room, the silence daring them to promise each other something else, too, if only they were brave enough. But neither of them could manage to say the words.

"Rei?"

"Hn?"

"Can I touch you now?"

"Ah." The Martian sounded relieved that Minako had asked, and when the Venusian's fingers twined between her own, Rei couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips.

"Ne, Rei?" Minako asked again. "Do you think, in the next life, that it'll be easier for us?"

Rei thought for a moment. "You mean, for you and I?"

"Yeah."

The Martian was quiet for a moment before she responded flatly. "No."

Minako's grip tightened on Rei's hand. "Can you… can you see something?"

There was just enough light for Minako to be able to see Rei's bittersweet smile. "No," she replied. "And I don't want to."

Minako snorted. "You've always lived in the moment, haven't you?"

"And you've always lived in the past."

Minako chuckled. "What a pair we make. You and I."

* * *

Preview: Interlude (Chapter 25)

Suddenly, Ami shivered, her body trembling as another memory hit her. Makoto rushed back to the other end of the room and sat on the couch next to her, placing her hand over Ami's on the cushion.

Ami blinked her eyes open. Tears were pooling in their corners. "It's almost over," she said.

Makoto held Ami's hand tighter. "Maybe we should stop now. We-"

"No!" Ami cried. She caught her lower lip in between her teeth and colored at her sudden insistence. "No." She repeated. "I'm going to continue to remember this regardless, and I'd rather remember it _with_ you." She turned to include Rei and Minako in her gaze. "All of you."


	25. Chapter 25

Through Their Eyes  
Interlude (Chapter 25)  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

"Let the world crumble around us…" Makoto's voice was a broken whisper as she remembered the memories that she knew were the beginning of the end of their time during the Silver Millennium.

Rei grunted, but said no more, because she knew better than any of them, even better than Minako, who had always been so smug in her knowledge of the past.

"There was nothing we could do to stop it." Minako's voice was raspy. Curled up on the couch, sitting as closely to Rei as possible without being in the other woman's lap, Minako pulled her knees close to her chest. The impending end of their past lives, although no easier to speak about, was at least safer territory than addressing the troubles in the relationships between their past life selves.

"Rei was right." Makoto's expression was stony. "We couldn't do anything to stop it then, but we were able to help Usagi defeat Metallia in this life."

"In this life," Rei said, "The host was strong enough to control both the light and the dark inside her. Usagi defeated Metallia, and although the light overwhelmed her in the end, it was Usagi's own purity that helped her to… reset the world."

"The ginzuishou," Ami whispered. "Beryl was a pawn. Metallia was only part of the equation. The ginzuishou… it was a curse. It was our enemy all along."

The smallest of smirks tugged at Minako's lips. "And yet Usagi defeated it."

"We were closer to her in this life." Rei said quietly. "We were a more effective team, and we helped her."

Minako opened her mouth, so many words hanging on the tip of her tongue. Had they not had their own struggles with one another in this time, too? Had they not, in some ways, been _closer_ in the last life?"

Rei smirked, as though she had been able to read her commander's thoughts. "Our physical and emotional relationships in the past life brought some of us closer together, but they also caused deeper rifts of different kinds. Not only between us as senshi, but with Serenity herself. In many ways, we had more secrets and untold truths between us then than we did now."

Rei looked at Minako from the corner of her eye, and this time, she wondered if she really _had_ read the other woman's thoughts, for she felt that they were thinking the exact same thing. Even without her past persona's memories at the time she had met Minako, the attraction between them had been clear, but if they had become closer all those years ago, would history have repeated itself? Would they be meeting in yet another 'next life' to start the same cycle all over again?

Or had Metallia's influence, unchecked by Serenity's lack of control in the past life, helped to foster and create the tensions between Serenity and her guardians during the Silver Millennium?

On the coffee table between the two couches, ice cubes in an empty glass shifted under their melting weight and clinked against one another loudly.

Makoto reached out and took the glass in her hand, holding it at its brim and spinning it slowly, the ice cubes sliding around the bottom of the glass. She sighed then, and looked around the room. Carefully avoiding making eye contact with any of her comrades, she inspected the room with a wistful expression.

"I could go for a stiff cup of coffee about now." She said.

Makoto had meant to alleviate some of the tension in the room, but her voice had sounded too desperate. Even now, the memories they had relived seemed too real, too fresh. Makoto tensed her hand into a fist as though the golden pendant of the Mati past-life Ami had given to her were still there. Ami looked at everything and everyone that wasn't Makoto. Rei and Minako shared sideways glances that couldn't quite be interpreted.

Makoto set the glass back on the table and then stood quickly, her movement abrupt and jarring. She stepped away from the couch and strode to the wall where she placed her hand on the smooth glass of a container of brightly colored candies. Funny that the candy machines and soda fountain hadn't aged with them, when all they wanted in the predawn hours of morning was coffee, or perhaps something stronger.

She turned to her friends, her expression a pinched frown. "Aren't we getting a little old for this? For secret bases and special powers and past lives?"

Minako tensed, her gaze uncertain over the tops of her knees where they were pulled to her chest. "No. I suppose this power never ages, and we'll always be those senshi at heart."

"And this place will stay as it is in case that power is ever needed again." Rei's quiet words were half question and half statement.

"Maa," Minako shrugged.

Suddenly, Ami shivered, her body trembling as another impending memory hit her. Makoto rushed back to the other end of the room and sat on the couch next to her, placing her hand over Ami's on the cushion.

Ami blinked her eyes open. Tears were pooling in their corners. "It's almost over," she said.

Makoto held Ami's hand tighter. "Maybe we should stop now. We-"

"No!" Ami cried. She caught her lip in between her teeth and colored at her sudden insistence. "No." She repeated more calmly. "I'm going to continue to remember this regardless, and I'd rather remember it _with_ you." She turned to include Rei and Minako in her gaze. "All of you."

Ami squeezed back against Makoto's hand, her past life swirling with her present one, and when she felt the thin, metal band of Makoto's engagement ring against her fingertips, she couldn't help but feel betrayed.

Ami pulled her hand away, straightened herself, and prepared for the inevitable end of their past existence.

* * *

Preview, Chapter 26: Delivery from the Moon

Zoicite paused when his eye caught a small, folded piece of paper that stuck out from under the orgel's top. He leant down and pulled it free.

The note was short and penned in precise, yet artistic handwriting. He had only unfolded the paper halfway, and already, he had read it in its entirety.

[The orgel is not strong enough to sway her memories. We fear nothing is. Abort this mission. –Venus]

Zoicite crushed the piece of paper in his gloved fist. His teeth ground together as he threw it at the floor. He tossed his cape over his shoulder and strode back to the piano.

"If I can't sway her memories," he spat, "then I have to sway _his_."

O O O

"Serenity!" Ami shouted. "She's disappeared! She was right in front of me, and then-"

"Rei!" Minako barked. She turned to her second in command, startled to find that the Martian had already slipped into her senshi form and was already tapping into her senses; her brow creased, her eyes darting back and forth under her eyelids. Minako waited impatiently as Mars analyzed her spiritual powers.

The crimson warrior's eyes shot open. "She's activated the youma."

"Which ones?" Minako demanded.

"Both of them. The light and the dark."

Enveloped in a golden light, Minako became Venus. "Where are they?" she demanded. "I'll send damage control ahead of us."

Mars shook her head. "It's no use. They're on Earth."

Ami inserted herself between Venus and Mars. "How did she get to the surface? I was just _with_ her!"

Mars frowned. "Her powers are increasing ten-fold."


	26. Chapter 26

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 26: Delivery from the Moon  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

A knock at his door shook Zoicite from the world he entered when he was at the mercy of his music. His hands slammed down on the keys and the piano issued a dissonant chord.

"What?" Zoicite barked.

A young guard poked his head into his chambers. He was as white as a ghost, as though death itself were trailing him. Zoicite suspected he was the cause of the man's fear.

"A… a delivery from the Moon," the guard said tentatively.

Zoicite leapt to his feet. The legs of his piano bench stuttered across the flagstone floor. The heels of his boots clicked in double time as he strode across the room, his cape fluttering behind him. He snatched the small box from the guard before slamming the door in his face.

With shaky hands, Zoicite tore the package open. When he saw the first corner of the orgel, packed neatly between styrofoam cylinders, his suspicions proved correct.

He hurled the box at the floor. The orgel he had sent to the moon bounced and then skidded across the stone. Despite the impact, it did not break. He stomped towards it, crushing the packaging pellets scattered across the floor, and his boot hovered over the orgel.

Zoicite paused when his eye caught a small, folded piece of paper that stuck out from under the orgel's top. He leant down and pulled it free.

The note was short and penned in precise, yet artistic handwriting. He had only unfolded the paper halfway, and already, he had read the message in its entirety.

[The orgel is not strong enough to sway her memories. We fear nothing is. Abort this mission. –Venus]

Zoicite crushed the piece of paper in his gloved fist. His teeth ground together as he threw it at the floor. He tossed his cape over his shoulder and strode back to the piano.

"If I can't sway her memories," he spat, "then I have to sway _his_."

Zoicite's fingers took off over the keys. The piano responded to the emotions he poured into it, and soon, a green light swirled and pulsed around the instrument, ebbing and flowing to the spell that he wove.

He was expecting the knock at the door, and he never looked up from the keys he played. "Come in, Master." He said knowingly.

Endymion opened the door, his hand falling limply at his side after the door had swung beyond his reach. Zoicite looked up into Endymion's dull and listless eyes.

"Master," Zoicite said breathlessly. His fingers faltered on the keys and he struggled to maintain the cadence and volume of the requiem he had created. It took the shitennou a moment to collect himself. "This song is for you," he said softly, a small smile on his thin lips.

Wordlessly, the Prince approached, his movements slow and cautious, as though he were intoxicated. His expression was an empty mask; stiff and unreadable. He stood at Zoicite's side - watching him, but not really seeing his guardian play.

Zoicite chuckled. "Do you remember, Master? Do you remember your lessons, here with me, in this room?"

The Prince frowned. His brow furrowed. His voice was muffled, as though he were speaking from behind a curtain. "You taught me courtly manners." He said distantly. "You taught me etiquette and finer things."

"I also taught you the joys of music." Zoicite said, adding extra reverb to his requiem with his foot on the damper pedal of his piano.

"You taught me deceit, also"

Zoicite's fingers faltered again. He rushed to resume the tempo of his song. When he looked up to Endymion, he saw that the man's expression was unchanged. He decided to interpret the comment literally. He had taught Endymion the tactics of deceit on the field of battle. He would not look into his Master's words any more thoroughly.

"You used to spend a lot of time in this room with me," Zoicite said, "listening to me play."

"I haven't, lately." Endymion replied.

"Why not?"

"A girl," the Prince paused. "A girl from the Moon."

Zoicite increased the pressure his fingers applied to the keys. "What was her name, Master? Who is this girl from the Moon?"

Endymion's brows furrowed. His mouth opened. His tongue poised behind his teeth with an answer he couldn't seem to find.

"What was her name, Master?"

The music filled the room entirely. Endymion's hands clenched at his sides, opening and closing. He did not see the ghostly apparition standing at the doorway.

Zoicite did.

"No…" He whispered.

"Her name…" Endymion's frown became a grimace, his eyes sightless and squinted.

The glowing white figure that stood in the doorway stepped into the room, the heels of her small shoes echoing beneath the roar of the music. She was no longer an apparition. She was real.

"Serenity." The name that came out of Zoicite's mouth was a desperate breath of air.

"Who?" Endymion asked, looking to his shitennou.

Serenity's eyes glowed brighter. She looked only at the Prince. "Endymion," she said.

The voice did not belong to her.

* * *

Minako leapt to her feet as Ami came tearing down the hallway, breathless and panicked.

"Ami-chan?"

"Serenity!" Ami shouted. "She's disappeared! She was right in front of me, and then-"

"Rei!" Minako barked. She turned to her second in command, startled to find that the Martian had already slipped into her senshi form and was already tapping into her senses; her brow creased, her eyes darting back and forth under her eyelids. Minako waited impatiently as Mars consulted her spiritual powers.

The crimson warrior's eyes shot open. "She's activated the youma."

"Which ones?" Minako demanded.

"Both of them. The light and the dark."

Enveloped in a golden light, Minako became Venus. "Where are they?" she demanded. "I'll send damage control ahead of us."

Mars shook her head. "It's no use. They're on Earth."

Ami inserted herself between Venus and Mars. "How did she get to the surface? I was just _with_ her!"

Mars frowned. "Her powers are increasing ten-fold."

"We have to go." Venus said. "We have to get to the shuttle bay-"

Mars grabbed her by the wrist. "I can get us there faster."

"How?" Venus snatched her wrist away from Mars and cocked her hand on a hip.

Mars smirked. "Zoicite's stupidity."

"Eh?"

Mars shut her eyes. Her nose wrinkled as she opened her senses and channeled the power she had detected, the power that had undoubtedly called to Serenity, as well.

"Zoicite." Venus spat. Her eyes narrowed as she strained to hear the faint, tinny notes. "His piano."

Ami frowned, panicked. "I can't hear anything."

Mars put her hand on Ami's shoulder. "Venus…" she trailed off and then found her voice again. "Venus is like me." She said with a definitive nod. Her free hand clenched at her side. The Mars dagger appeared in her gloved fist.

Venus smiled softly. In response, the Venus dagger appeared in her hand in a brilliant, golden light.

Mars released Ami and reached out to her commander. Venus didn't hesitate in slipping her fingers between Mars'.

Venus offered Ami her best interpretation of a smile. It looked more like a lopsided grin. "Don't worry," she said, "Mars and I will bring Serenity back."

Carried on the waves of Zoicite's song, Mars and Venus vanished in a golden-crimson flash of light.

* * *

It wasn't the first time they had traveled via Zoicite's song, but the distance from the Earth to the Moon was no small jaunt, and once they'd materialized in the Earth Palace, Mars and Venus had to choke back the nausea and weakness that affected them. Despite the groggy sickness, they had no time to waste on recovery. They had suspected as much, and eagerly leapt into battle the moment they became fully corporeal.

Six black youma threatened Zoicite, and the silver haired man retracted his hands from the piano and drew his sword as they approached. He was barely off the bench before the first one reached him, wrapping its claws around his neck.

Venus' chain wrapped around the youma's arm as a pillar of fire held the others at bay. The golden warrior tugged sharply, and Zoicite's attacker was pulled away, although its claws raked across the shitennou's neck and drew a bright trail of blood. Zoicite stumbled to his knees, grabbing his neck with his gloved hands.

Venus' momentum pulled her opponent within striking range, and with one efficient lunge, she gutted the youma with her dagger. She ran to Zoicite, kneeling next to him and trying to determine the extent of the wound he suffered.

Mars' fire only incinerated one of the five ghouls and as her pillar of flame weakened, she rushed forward and stabbed one of the monsters through the neck. She was only vaguely aware of another dropping to the ground next to her, the tip of a long, broad sword protruding through its middle. She identified the weapon as belonging to Kunzite, but did not take her attention off her opponent until she had slit its throat and dropped it to the floor. Two youma remained. These were immediately circled; one by Kunzite and Nephrite, and the other by Jadeite.

Kunzite lanced the youma before him through the shoulder while Nephrite lunged forward and beheaded it. Mars would have appreciated the humans' ruthless efficiency, but she was too busy rushing to aide Jadeite. The youngest shitennou was being driven back by the last remaining monster.

Jadeite's dagger was short, and as he hesitated to get within striking range, the youma took advantage of his weakness, grabbing the blond youth by the shoulder and pulling him into his grasp.

"Kunzite!" Jadeite screamed for his commander's help, stiff and afraid in the youma's hold.

Kunzite barked an order at his subordinate, giving Jadeite a plan of attack, but the stiff boy would not move. Blood poured from where the creature had sunk its claws into his middle, and a sickly green light surrounded them as it readied to suck the very life out of Jadeite's body.

The gold and crimson tip of Mars' dagger appeared next to Jadeite's smooth cheek. She withdrew her weapon that had pierced the creature through its back and the youma twitched, and then fell. It was only Jadeite's quick reflexes that kept him from being crushed under the still-warm corpse.

Kunzite narrowed his eyes at Mars. "He could have defeated it on his own."

Mars spun toward the leader of the shitennou. "This is not a training exercise." She spat.

"Where is Serenity and Endymion." Venus' demand halted any further argument.

With one hand still staunching the bleeding that had turned his gloved hand red, Zoicite pointed to a door that led to a courtyard. Venus took off and Mars followed, the shitennou trailing behind them.

In the early twilight of the falling evening, Serenity's white youma were a shining beacon. Six of them surrounded Serenity and Endymion, the Princess slowly pulling the Prince behind her through the garden, his movements slow and listless, his gaze vacant.

"Master!" Nephrite's panicked voice rang out, and with his speed, he overtook Venus and Mars.

"No!" Venus called. "Don't attack them!"

Nephrite was acting on instinct alone, running right into the line of ghostly, dancing creatures. He lunged at one with his blade, but its ambiguous body dodged at the last second, a barely perceptible movement that had Nephrite's cold steel slipping harmlessly between folds of white cloth.

Serenity paused and looked over her shoulder. The white youma halted their aimless, twisting dancing and went rigid, as though they were listening to a command that only they could hear. A split second later, they convened on their attacker. Nephrite barked for help as he was driven back by the creatures, barely avoiding impalement by their long scimitars.

As the leader of the shitennou sprinted past her, Venus tried to call out to Kunzite to tell him that the white youma couldn't be fought. Her plea fell on deaf ears. She continued running, the toes of her sandals digging into the sandy path as she dodged around the skirmish, trying instead to intercept Serenity and Endymion.

As she passed, three of the white youma broke off their attack on Kunzite and Nephrite. These were intercepted by Mars, who skidded to a halt and blocked the narrow walkway to buy her commander time. Venus sprinted faster, knowing that the shitennou, and even Mars, could not hold off the white youma for very long.

Not without sacrifices.

"Serenity!" Her impassioned cry didn't seem to reach her Princess' ears, and Serenity kept on walking, nearly gliding on the air, dragging Endymion behind her.

"Usagi-chan!" Venus cried.

The Princess stopped moving. Endymion bumped into her, and then stood numbly at her side. When Serenity looked back over her shoulder, the crystal-white light behind her eyes had dissipated. Venus clung to the hope of drawing Serenity's other personality out. She stopped ten feet away from her Princess, panting heavily.

"Usagi-chan,"

"No." Serenity said, her voice icy.

Venus recoiled. She knew she was dealing with the personality of Serenity's most ruthless side – the light that imprisoned the darkness within her. Venus' only consolation was that it was easier to work with this personality than the one that commanded the dark youma.

Venus took a step closer. "Princess," she tried, "Endymion is-"

Serenity's eyes narrowed, and the light behind them threatened again. "Endymion is what? Step aside, Venus. You are my guardian, not my mother."

Venus straightened. "Surely, Princess, you can see that Endymion is not himself."

Serenity looked behind her, at the man that stood at her side, as though she had never seen him before. "Endymion." The name was a cold demand.

The golden warrior closed the small amount of space between them and put her hand on Serenity's arm. It took all of her willpower not to pull away from the icy fire that threatened to scald her. "Usagi-chan," she said, "will you help me to bring Endymion back to himself?"

"Endymion?" This time, her voice was small and lost, and Venus knew Usagi was trying to speak.

"Endymion!" Serenity reached out for the Prince's hands, clasping them in hers. Venus stood tense as Serenity threw her arms around his neck, crying and pleading for him to remember her.

Venus listened with baited breath as Serenity reminded Endymion of how they met, of the love they shared. Even when Venus learned more than what she found appropriate to know, she did not turn away, her gaze locked on Endymion's cloudy eyes, willing him to remember her Princess.

"Endymion," Serenity cried, "you have to remember me! I need you by my side, I'm scared of myself!"

Suddenly, the Prince stood ramrod straight, and slowly, as if fighting the confusion that veiled his memories, his limp arms encircled Serenity's waist. The Princess cried, a strangled exclamation stuck in her throat.

Venus knew then that Usagi had emerged, and finally, she dared to look away. On the path not far behind her, Mars's foes disappeared into nothingness. The crimson warrior collapsed to her knees, her gloved fingers digging into the sand as she struggled to catch her breath.

"Serenity," Endymion spoke with his own heartfelt voice.

With the price and the princess back to themselves, Venus might have been put at ease if she hadn't known that they'd only postponed the inevitable. She watched as Mars pulled herself to her feet, her stance compromised by a wound to the thigh that had doubtlessly been delivered by a youma blade. Her face was as white as a sheet. She and Venus shared a brief glance that said one thing;

_For how much longer can we delay this?_

The sound of footfalls on the path behind her forced Mars to pull herself together; she would not allow the shitennou to see her so weak. She hurried to Venus' side and pointedly kept watch on the Prince and the Princess.

Kunzite and Nephrite hurried to them, both bleeding and panting from their skirmish with the white youma. Venus inserted herself in the middle of the path to block their approach.

"You will let me see my Prince." Kunzite's voice was hoarse and strong, but the hesitance in his body language was easily read by Venus; the man had fought on many battlefields, but the monstrous youma had shaken him to his core.

"He is back to himself." The golden warrior said coldly, refusing to give.

"No thanks to _you_." Mars scowled at the leader of the shitennou. Kunzite drew his sword and Mars stepped forward, her dagger materializing in her hand.

"Enough!" Endymion shouted. He glared at his guards over Serenity's shoulder. Kunzite remained tense and on alert, and only scowled at Mars, who had not so much as flinched.

Endymion unraveled himself from Serenity's hold, the Princess still sobbing and clinging to him. Jadeite and Zoicite arrived, both of the injured men supporting one another and holding the line with heir comrades.

"Serenity is not a threat right now." Endymion ignored his guards and rubbed Serenity's back in small circles. "But we must get her back home." He finally raised his gaze to look at Venus. "I will go with her."

"Master-"

"Endymion-"

The Prince halted the argument with a gesture of his hand. "I am the only one who can hope to help her. I will not leave her side any more." He nodded at Venus. "We will take one of your shuttles, and we will leave immediately. I fear that time is of the essence."

He lifted Serenity into his arms and stepped between Venus and Mars. The golden warrior nodded and lead the way. The landing pad wasn't very far away, but she knew that haste was necessary.

"I'm sorry," Serenity said, her voice choked. She repeated herself over and over, her face buried in Endymion's shoulder, and he shushed and soothed her as he hurried, completely ignoring the protests of his shitennou behind him.

The four men continued to tag along behind them, Zoicite and Jadeite leading the charge like worried hens, and finally, Mars had had enough. She spun on her heel and ignited a wall of flame that spanned the path.

Hearing the commotion, Endymion turned, and saw his guardians on the other side of the angry flames. Kunzite and Nephrite stood behind the pensive and worried Jadeite and Zoicite, and despite the crossed arms and angry glares of his most martial shitennou, he knew they were all equally worried.

Endymion tried to see beyond what he knew he felt, tried to swallow the bitterness of the words he knew he had to speak. His face was a rigid mask, and he came to stand before the flames in between Venus and Mars.

"I release you of your service." He said to his shitennou, his words spoken without inflection. He nodded sharply, and then turned and walked away.

The shitennou echoed a chorus of his name, and again, Endymion turned to them. He could not maintain his stony expression, and a bittersweet smile tugged at Endymion's lips. "I must go where my heart leads me," he said, "and I'm trying to make this easy on all of you."

The popping and crackling heat of the flames distorted the appearance of his warriors. Zoicite stepped forward until the heat of the fire turned his white complexion red.

"Master," he said, "Don't presume to know where our hearts will lead us."

The shitennou and their Prince watched each other for a long moment, the tongues of fire leaping and dancing between them. Finally, Endymion nodded, and again turned away.

Venus followed him, and Mars released her hold on her element. The walls of flame disappeared, the black, scorched earth across the trail the only remainder of its intensity. She offered them an unreadable look before hurrying after her commander. The landing pad was just over the rise of the hill, and Endymion was moving with haste.

After a moment though, Mars snorted. She sensed the continued presence of the shitennou and she looked over her shoulder and smacked her lips. Venus raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I admire their loyalty, if little else." The crimson warrior said gruffly.

Surprised, Venus looked behind her and she offered the shitennou who walked behind them an honest smile.

"How do you think they feel about you?" Endymion's lighthearted chuckle might have lightened the mood, if it weren't for a unit of the Earth army heading in the same direction on the main path. He stumbled to a halt, turning Serenity so that she wouldn't see the massing force that was doubtlessly searching for him.

"Beryl is all but leading the armies now. They know the Lunarians are here." Zoicite said, looking between the soldiers, his Prince, and his commander.

Kunzite crossed his arms over his chest and smirked at Endymion. "Cut through the woods." He said sharply. "We'll intercept them on the main path and hold them at bay until you launch." In the wake of his confidence, Nephrite, Zoicite, and Jadeite stood tall next to him.

Endymion paled. "But if you engage against-"

"Do not question me!" Kunzite shouted. He drew his sword and marched away. Over his shoulder, he called, "You don't have much time, if you are going to follow your heart. Come what may, don't hesitate now."

The leader of the shitennou took off at a dead run. His subordinates offered their Prince one, last, longing look before they took off after their commander.

Endymion watched them go. Finally, he tightened his hold on Serenity, and then dove into the woods behind Venus, and Mars filed in behind him.

The forest floor slowed them down, but they gained time by taking the more direct route. Venus climbed the rise of the hill and crashed through the tree line ahead of them. Her eyes scanned first for soldiers. She could hear them; around the corner and down the hill, there was a skirmish. Failing diplomacy, if Kunzite had even tried for it at all, the shitennou were holding their own against the large force.

She turned her attention to the shuttles on the landing pad and chose the one she knew to be the smallest and fastest of the bunch, a gunmetal grey craft built for forward scouting missions.

Endymion was still laboring up the hill. Serenity was a small woman, but the forest floor was wrought with dangers. Mars pushed him from behind. To the crimson warrior, Venus shone like a golden beacon at the top of the hill.

"Get the shuttle started!" Mars barked.

Venus shook herself and sprinted across the landing pad. Her fingers flew over the shuttle's exterior control panel. The craft had been given to the Terrans as a peace offering, but her security commands still overrode all others installed. The door slid open and she threw herself up the small flight of steps and initiated the start sequence. In the wide opening of the windshield, she watched as Mars pulled Endymion up and over the edge of the hill, but the sigh of relief she wanted to exhale became a strangled gasp.

Even from this distance, she could identify the one, human woman who approached on the path that the shitennou were supposed to have blocked.

Venus abandoned her post. She jumped out of the shuttle and ran to the Prince and the Princess, and to Mars.

Endymion was slow and weak, but with the shuttle firmly in his sights, he did not falter. Not until he heard Beryl's voice.

"Endymion!"

The Prince froze. His heart pounded in his chest, as much from his exertion as from the woman who had called his name. When he turned, he saw Beryl standing twenty feet from him, her frizzy red hair tumbling around her shoulders, her chest heaving from her own exertion. Behind her, a troop of soldiers approached at a run. Even with their weapons pointed at the off-worlders as much as they were pointed at _him_, Endymion still thought of what fate his shitennou might have suffered for his sake.

Beryl took several shaky steps forward. "You're going to the Moon, aren't you?" The soldiers came to a hesitant halt, holding a line behind her and Beryl seemed not to notice. To her, Endymion was the only one that existed.

The Prince shifted Serenity in his arms. "I am." He replied quietly.

Beryl straightened her shoulders and stuck out her chest, her show of bravery compromised by the manner in which her hands clenched at her sides.

"If you leave, you will loose what little trust your people still hold in you."

Endymion gestured at the armed troops with a nod of his head. "I think it's already too late for that."

Beryl looked behind her, her brows raised and her mouth parted in surprise as though she hadn't known that a hundred soldiers had followed her, waiting for her command.

Endymion's expression softened. "My people don't know how hard I'm trying to save them, and you don't understand why I need to go."

"I don't want you to leave me!" Beryl's voice was a desperate plea, and she rushed forward, but then recoiled, as if she hadn't realized that Serenity was in Endymion's arms until that very moment.

"I can't help you, Beryl." Endymion looked to the ground. "I don't even _know_ you anymore. I'm sorry."

Beryl's mouth hung open. Her lower lip trembled and her hands shook. She looked like she might cry when she suddenly blanched white.

Only she heard the thunderous, sickening voice of Metallia.

"_Let him go. The humans are ready for your command. Your Prince is deserting his people and you have become their Queen."_

Beryl's jaw shut with a snap of her teeth clicking together. She stepped backwards and drew herself to her full height. An angry sneer tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"You may leave, Endymion," her wavering voice betrayed her. "But you may _never_ return."

"Beryl-"

The troops raised their weapons, aiming them at their former Prince and the other off-worlders, their fingers poised over their triggers.

"So be it." Endymion said hoarsely. He turned and led the way to the shuttle Venus had prepared. Several heartbeats passed before Mars could wrench her gaze away from Beryl.

As the shuttle reached escape velocity and they left the blue-tinged atmosphere of the Earth and plunged into the dark void of space, Mars turned to her companions and spoke with a quiet voice,

"Beryl is only a tool, but she will be the trigger that will activate the beginning of the end."

* * *

Preview, Chapter 27: Prophecy Fulfilled

"How is Serenity?" Rei asked.

Endymion's shoulders slumped. "She's not woken up since we returned." He examined his hands. "I guess it's for the best. The longer she sleeps…"

Rei's gaze hardened. "I know what you're thinking."

Endymion scoffed at the cryptic warning. "They say you can see the future."

The two of them watched one another in strained silence; Rei not deigning to provide an answer, and Endymion not willing to ask the question a second time.

"I think it's the only option I have left." His eyes grew unfocused. "She'll come. Somehow, Beryl will get here, and she'll bring war with her."

"Yes." Rei replied evenly.

Endymion scowled. "Then what does it matter what I chose to do? It sounds to me like our destruction has been foretold and will not be altered, no matter what we try to do."

"You're correct." Rei shrugged. She rose to her feet and slowly walked to the door. "But it won't make your chosen actions any less futile in the end."

She paused at the door, her hand on the knob. She did not turn to look at him. "The future doesn't favor martyrs, Endymion. And rarely does the person for whom you've sacrificed everything appreciate your selflessness."


	27. Chapter 27

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 27: Prophecy Fulfilled  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

Beryl paced across the throne room. Of all the places in the Palace that she knew like the back of her hand, this was not one she had often visited. Endymion had not been very formal in his ruling, and had often held both court and council in more mundane and comfortable places.

Metallia, however, had suggested that such a place was more fitting for the newly appointed Queen of the Earth. Such a place belonged to Beryl.

She had not argued with the dark being that was now always by her side. She had dismissed the servants and the council, and had requested privacy while behind the doors of the throne room. The people of Earth were waiting for her plan of action, and she was not foolish enough not to realize that that plan wasn't hers at all.

It was Metallia's.

Beryl stepped down off the raised dais of the throne and paced across a long, red runner that ran down the middle of the stone floor. She wrung her hands together and gazed at the ceiling.

"I know that the Lunarian forces are weak and that we have a strong military advantage over them, but for the fact that we have no feasible means of transporting our troops to the Moon in an efficient manner." She reached the end of the runner, spun, and turned back. "We have only two Lunarian shuttles left at our disposal, plus our own spacecraft, but we would not be able to move any more than one hundred troops in a single trip."

She placed a finger on her chin as she ran the numbers in her head. "The Lunarian shuttles can transport fifty people in one hour, given the time it would take to land on the Moon and return to Earth. Our craft can transport the same number of people, but it takes days to-"

"_Are you quite done?"_

The icy, even voice of Metallia felt like nails across a chalk board, and Beryl cringed.

"_Your logistics are of little consequence to my powers. I will have the entirety of your military on the Moon the moment they are ready to deploy."_

Metallia issued the equivalent of a snort and Beryl blinked dumbly. _"We will combine our forces, you and I, and we will crush the Moon Kingdom together. I will consume the fear of their dying nation, and will be able to sever my ties to my host. My host can be killed along with the light that binds me, and Endymion will be yours."_

Beryl was breathless, unable to fully comprehend Metallia's plan. She was silent for a long moment, and when she again found the courage to speak, she addressed the logistics instead of issues closer to her heart. "I may have the support of many, but the armies that once belonged to the shitennou, and to… to…" she swallowed a lump in her throat, "to Endymion, still remain loyal to their commanders."

"_Those fool shitennou?"_

Beryl nodded distantly. "They have been court-martialed for high treason since they helped Endymion to escape, but even though they are imprisoned, they still hold sway over the peoples of their countries.

"_They are yours."_

"Mine?"

There was silence for a long moment. Beryl's gaze darted from one corner of the throne room to the other, despite the fact that Metallia had no corporeal manifestation beyond the dark youma when they were summoned.

"_Now,"_ Metallia said almost smugly, _"the shitennou are at your service."_

As soon as the malevolent being had spoken, there was a knock at the door. Beryl whipped around to face the entrance and the door swung open. A procession of men followed.

Jadeite walked through the threshold first. His dark eyes peered at her from under his curly, blond bangs, and Beryl felt a longing in his gaze. She wondered if he had ever looked at her like that before, or if it was just a side effect of Metallia's power.

Nephrite was next to enter; his tall, strong form stiff and mechanical. His gaze was empty, as though he had been glad to cede control of his body and thoughts to another. He stepped next to his young comrade and stood quietly in deference to his Queen.

It took several moments, but Kunzite was next to enter. The topknot on his head was as neat and pristine as the rest of his appearance, despite a black eye had had suffered in the skirmish with Beryl's troops. She knew immediately that Kunzite wasn't completely under Metallia's sway as the other two were, likely a result of his own, arcane magics, but Beryl said nothing. Kunzite was headstrong and might have his own reasons for going along with Metallia's influence.

Zoicite came in last, several long moments later. His movements were awkward and jerky, as though he were fighting Metallia's influence with every step that he took, ever loyal to his Master. Beryl wondered why the malevolent being was toying with them to such an extent instead of simply eliminating their ability to defy, but then she wondered if the role she played was very much different. Zoicite stood next to his commander. His knees hit the floor; Metallia had forced him to cow himself.

One by one, the shitennou had come to her service. Assembled before her now, not all of them completely willing, she wouldn't quite say they were the men she remembered. But she couldn't quite say she had any choice in whether or not she used them.

She had chosen her path long ago, and now, she was being held to her decision

"Your orders, our Queen?" Kunzite's raspy voice bordered a mocking tone.

Beryl straightened her shoulders. She felt Metallia's power rushing through her veins. It was hot and soothing and addictive. "Your troops must ready to attack the Moon," she said. "We will crush their kingdom in one fell swoop. How long will it take your forces until they can deploy?"

"Twenty four hours." Kunzite said sharply. "Between our four forces and the army of the Prince, we will have a combined force of a hundred thousand."

"One hundred thousand?" Beryl's expression faltered. "The Moon only harbors some twenty thousand in civilian total. We would eliminate every man, woman, and child."

"_I will accept no less than complete and total annihilation."_

If the shitennou felt or heard the sickening influence of Metallia's voice, they did not show it.

Beryl's vision swam in her sudden nausea. She felt the familiar touch of Metallia against her mind, felt the surge of heat as the malevolent being offered her the slightest increase of power. Beryl's head spun, her veins felt like liquid fire. It was intoxicating.

She turned to Kunzite with a maniacal smirk. "I will give you only twelve hours to prepare for deployment. I advise that you hurry."

* * *

Endymion stepped out of Serenity's private chamber and into the darkness of her antechamber. He closed the doors behind him quietly, leaned his back against them, and buried his head in his hands with sigh.

"How is she?"

Endymion jumped. His eyes scanned the dark room, and finally, he saw her - sitting in a chair in the corner, one leg crossed over the other, her unreadable expression offering him no insight into her thoughts.

"Rei," he said.

"How is she," The Martian repeated.

Endymion's shoulders slumped. "She's not woken up since we returned." He examined his hands. "I guess it's for the best. The longer she sleeps…"

Rei's gaze hardened. "I know what you're thinking."

Endymion scoffed at the cryptic warning. "They say you can see the future."

The two of them watched one another in strained silence; Rei not deigning to provide an answer, and Endymion not willing to ask the question a second time.

"I think it's the only option I have left." His eyes grew unfocused. "She'll come; somehow, Beryl will get here, and she'll bring war with her."

"Yes." Rei replied evenly.

Endymion scowled. "Then what does it matter what I chose to do? It sounds to me like our destruction has been foretold and will not be altered, no matter what we try to do."

"You're correct." Rei shrugged. She rose to her feet and slowly walked to the door. "But it won't make your chosen actions any less futile in the end."

She paused at the door, her hand on the knob. She did not turn to look at him. "The future doesn't favor martyrs, Endymion. And rarely does the person for whom you've sacrificed everything appreciate your selflessness."

"Rei?"

Lost to her own mysterious thoughts, Rei did not respond to his call. She shut the door quietly behind her and she walked away.

* * *

Minako frowned when her second in command entered the small servant's room across the hall from Serenity's chambers, and Rei saw it for the pout that it was.

"Where were you," Minako demanded.

Rei shrugged and then stepped between her commander and Makoto, both of them standing behind Ami, who sat at the desk that was pushed against the wall.

Ami's computer displayed a jumble of information that Rei couldn't hope to keep up with. Windows popped open of their own accord, more and more information streaming in every moment.

Ami exhaled loudly, blowing out a hot breath that scattered the bangs on her forehead. "The Earth is mobilizing." Her voice was remarkably calm. "Troops are arming, weapons are being raised from silos." She turned to look at her comrades over her shoulder. "They're coming for us."

"This makes no sense." Minako squinted as she focused on the streaming data. "The Earth is fulfilling the prophecy."

Makoto snorted and held her fist close to her chest. "They don't even have the technology to _get_ here. We can just pick them off as they come in small groups, and-" Her voice died in her throat when she saw Rei shake her head.

"The ginzuishou will bring them here." Rei said quietly. And it's neither the Earth or the Moon that will fulfill the prophecy, but Serenity herself."

The room fell into silence. The only sound was the overworked processor of Ami's computer. Finally, the Mercurian closed the machine with a click of its lid. Avoiding the gazes of her friends and comrades, she picked it up off the desk and hurried out of the room. Makoto followed after her a moment later.

Once they were alone, Minako slipped her hand into Rei's. When she finally found the courage to meet the Martian's gaze, she had plastered on a plastic smile that Rei immediately saw through.

She offered her second in command a lopsided smirk. "And here I thought we'd have at least one last night together."

Rei snorted. She ran her thumb over the top of Minako's hand. "Apparently, that was last night."

Minako issued a chuckle that fell flat. With her free hand, she tossed her dark hair over a shoulder. "Well then, I guess we'll just have to make up for it in the next life."

"Well, aren't _you_ being the presumptuous one?" Rei raised an eyebrow, but she squeezed Minako's hand tightly.

This time, Minako's laugh rang true, and she leaned in for a kiss; chaste, but lingering. When she parted, her forehead resting against Rei's, she asked quietly, "the time for _lasts_ isn't quite over yet, is it?"

Rei smiled softly. She replied without words, as was her way.

* * *

The time had come.

The four senshi stood outside the Palace walls. Behind them, the eclectic collection of only a few thousand warriors that represented the last gasp of the Moon Kingdom was a laughable matter. Venusian renegades with guns strapped to their waists stood alongside Jovian warriors clothed in leather and holding long spears. Martian fighters in long robes; some with concealed weapons, and others with long bows stood alongside Mercurian weapons masters that boasted a wide variety of long-range weapons. The small force of the Moon's army; young men in white battle gear and long swords, did little more than stand out like sore thumbs.

The lot of them wouldn't last for more than a few minutes.

Each and every one of them watched the horizon, looking at the dark cloud that loomed through the darkness of space. Many had commented that the cloud resembled a face. Some could see its eyes; some could see a pointy-toothed grin. Mercury had insisted that it was trick of the light; a side effect of the strange trail of negatively-charged energy that physically connected the Earth to the Moon, the magical bridge that steadily delivered the Terran army.

The first explosion that lit the sky was both a relief and a shock for those that waited for the attack begin. The explosions to the east heralded the first wave of the Earth army as Terran weapons slammed into the far edge of the Jovian tent city.

There was a ripple in the ranks of the rag tag fighters. Venus turned back to the soldiers and held her hand open in a halting gesture.

The tent cities had already been evacuated. Those that couldn't fight had been sent into the mountains. It had been a fool's errand, but had seemed like the right decision; for those that didn't have Rei's gift - or curse - of clairvoyance, did not know that there was no hiding from their fates.

Venus had given the command to allow the humans to waste their resources by allowing them to destroy their empty towns. The humans would expend manpower and resources by making their way through their winding streets and stone buildings. Meanwhile, the Moon's forces would save their energy until the first lines met them before the Palace.

And _then_ they would die.

In a few moments, the entire horizon was on fire as the eastern edge of the city burned. Plumes of smoke billowed upwards, meeting the crystalline edges of the geo-dome above and beginning to pool at its highest point.

Soon, the rumbling of explosions ceased. The humans had realized their mistake and halted their missiles. They would sooner choke and smother their own troops before they got to the city center.

The shattering of bombs was replaced with the thundering of tens of thousands of running feet. The senshi and the interstellar soldiers could easily track the Earthlings movements as the humans streamed through the streets, filling the main thoroughfares and choking the smaller arteries as they rushed forward.

The baritone of shouting voices - the interstellar language of war and destruction - soon reached the ears of the senshi. The ranks again rippled, and Venus knew she could not hold their lines any longer.

As the first wave of the humans turned down the streets that led to the Palace proper, Venus screamed; a hoarse battle cry that managed to rise above the din, and the last remnants of the Moon Kingdom charged forward to meet the humans in battle.

The first wave engaged the warriors in melee-style combat. Venus would have thought the Terrans unorganized and foolish, but as she engaged in a fistfight with a man nearly twice her size, she realized the intelligence of their plan to start their war with a street fight.

Gunfire.

A vicious uppercut with the heel of her hand broke the nose of her attacker with a resounding snap, and she hit the ground as the second wave of humans took aim and fired into the crowd. People fell to the ground; humans and refugees alike.

The Earthlings weren't being too careful in their aim; they had resources to spare.

"Artemis!" Pressed tightly to the cobblestone street, Venus barked into her communicator. "Have the Mercurian weapons masters, the Venusian gunsmiths, and the Martian archers fall back and attack with their long range weapons. Focus them on the second wave!"

"Roger that!"

She could barely hear the tactician's reply over the gunfire. From the corner of her eye, Venus saw the brilliant green of Jupiter's fuku, and watched with crystal clarity as a bullet buried into her thigh. If Jupiter felt the wound, she did not show pain. She took down three humans with her halberd, and then shot a bolt of electricity into the ranks of humans.

Venus scrambled to her feet. She summoned the Venus dagger, and then she ran into the crowd, slicing to either side and dropping Earthlings one by one. Two bullets ricocheted off her dagger, but she never once slowed.

Her tactic began to take effect, and soon, the Terran gunfire began to diminish as the expert warriors at her command picked off the second wave of their opposition. The first wave; still engaged in melee brawl, were becoming few and far between; falling to the Jovian barbarians and the Venusian renegades and the combined attacks of the senshi.

Still, many of their numbers had already been killed. Venus noted the dark looks that the Martian archers shared with one another. They were running out of arrows. Likewise, the technology that fueled the Mercurian lasers would not be indefinite. The Venusians had already run out of bullets.

And yet many of the warriors rejoiced; and as they watched the humans retreat, some of them felt a victory that had not been won.

There was a lull in the fighting as the Terrans regrouped, waiting for reinforcements to reach them. Venus took a guess; half of her force lay dead or dying. They might be lucky to have three thousand men left, and of them, perhaps half were already injured. She picked her senshi out in the crowd. The women were battle weary but otherwise standing strong. Jupiter and Mercury had leaned heavily on their powers, but Mars had held back on unleashing her fire for the same reasons that the Earthlings had held back their missiles.

"Venus." Artemis' voice came through the golden warrior's communicator.

"Artemis," She replied.

"They're still coming."

"I know." She could feel it in her feet; the next waves of human fighters. Her warriors could feel it too; their cheering had given way to grim and stony expressions and they readied themselves as the approaching clouds of dust that rose above the buildings marked the human progress through the streets.

"No," Artemis clarified, "I don't just mean those running through the city. I mean those landing outside the city walls. There's no _end_ to them, Minako. I think Beryl is sending everything she's got."

Venus shrugged. "Overkill?" She asked as she blew her sweaty bangs away from her eyes. "It doesn't matter, Artemis. We already knew-"

"I know," he snapped. "Still, I recommend that you and your senshi fall back. The safety of the Princess is your priority."

Venus nodded sharply. "Understood."

She cast one, last, longing look at the battlefield. Somehow, she felt that she'd rather die a warrior's death among the remains of the Moon Kingdom than meet whatever fate awaited her. She wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to bear witness to a prophecy fulfilled.

She pushed that thought away and stood on the tips of her toes. "Mars!"

The Martian was already looking at her commander and their gazes met across the bodies of their fallen. Mars nodded sharply, and then her hands danced before her. Waves of heat rippled from them and the warriors in her vicinity scrambled to get out of her way.

She would grant their soldiers one last boon, and as the next waves of humans began charging towards them, she released a pillar of fire that blocked the entrance to every street that led to the square.

It would be the last line of defense; it would give the refugee warriors a few more precious moments to live.

Venus fell back. She sprinted towards the Palace. Mars, Jupiter, and Mercury followed.

They had different fates to meet.

* * *

The senshi barged into Serenity's room. The double doors swung on their hinges as the four women tried to catch their breath.

On the Princess' bed, Endymion held Serenity tightly and tried to calm her. Serenity's body shook, and she glowed with the pure-white light that they had come to fear.

Artemis' voice came across Venus' communicator, the radio waves breaking in and out. "The humans have broken the last line of defense. They're infiltrating the palace. They-"

There was a scream somewhere in the control room where the tactician had hailed her from. The radio waves broke, faded to static and then came in strong again. The screams became amplified. The echo of gunfire was silenced by Venus as she terminated the transmission. She frowned at the bracelet, yanked the strap off her wrist, and threw it to the ground.

She looked out the window and watched as the human army stormed their way through the main doors of the Palace – waves and waves of humans pouring into the Palace grounds. "It's all happening so fast," she whispered.

She realized belatedly that she could no longer hear Endymion struggling to calm Serenity, and that was when she realized that her Princess was standing next to her. When she looked up, she saw that Serenity's features were soft and unguarded, and Venus knew she was looking at Usagi.

"I'm sorry, Minako-chan." The Princess spoke so softly that Venus wondered if the others could hear her. Serenity touched her shoulder; a gentle and warm gesture.

"Somehow," Serenity paused. She looked out the window, and Venus followed her gaze to the carnage below, watching the Terrans as they stepped over her dead warriors. "Somehow, I'll make things right again. Somehow, I'll fix all of this."

Venus looked back to her Princess and she forced herself not to pull away as Serenity's hand on her shoulder became an unbearable combination of icy cold and blisteringly hot.

"I will fix this," Serenity's gaze became unfocused. Behind her dark eyes, that crystal light began to glow again. "But not today."

Serenity's eyes narrowed at something down below and Venus looked back out the window. On the ground, the humans parted, clearing a path that one woman walked down slowly.

"Beryl," Serenity's voice dropped an octave. It carried an eerie, reverberating echo.

On the ground, Beryl looked up as though she had heard her name despite the distance that separated them, and she and Serenity stared at each other for a long moment.

"Serenity," Endymion rushed over. He grabbed the Princess by the shoulders, even as the woman was enveloped by a blinding white light.

The senshi had been forced to shield their eyes. When they could again see, they found Endymion on the floor as if unconscious, and he was cradled by a woman who barely resembled their Princess.

"Serenity-" Mercury gasped and reached out, her lower lip trembling at the transformation that had changed their Princess.

"No," Serenity's sharp voice caused Mercury to recoil. The Princess' attention again turned to Endymion, and she gently slid his body to the floor next to her bare thighs, barely covered by a short, blue skirt.

Slowly, Serenity stood, and her senshi could no longer deny that she had become one of _them_.

"Princess-"

"Sailor-"

"Moon-"

Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury spliced a name together that might or might not have accurately reflected the woman that stood before them. Serenity pushed back a pigtail, - no longer black but now golden in color - over her shoulder, and she gave her guardians only one instruction.

"Protect him." She said coldly, and she walked out of the room slowly and methodically, as though she hadn't walked in centuries.

Venus hurried after the Princess, torn between her subordinates and Serenity. She stopped at the door and looked back over her shoulder. Mercury was on her knees next to Endymion, checking his pulse and confirming that he was only unconscious.

"Jupiter," Venus barked.

Where she stood tensely behind Mercury, Jupiter nodded sharply. She leant down and lifted Endymion off the floor. She shifted him in his arms and he mumbled, his eyes making an effort to open.

"We have to follow Serenity."

"Go," Jupiter said to her commander. "I'll be right behind you with him."

"Mercury," Venus commanded. "Bring up the rear behind Jupiter." She turned to her second in command. "You're with me."

Venus and Mars took off down the hallway, Jupiter and Mercury following at a slower pace.

They'd almost made their way to the main level of the Palace when the floor shook violently underneath their feet. Mars and Venus braced their hands against the stairwell until the trembling and crashing ceased. They didn't try to guess the cause of the tremor, and only sprinted down the last flight of steps, taking three at a time in their haste.

When they hit the ground level, they found themselves gazing at an open cavity where the main atrium had once stood. The ceiling had been blown apart, pillars lay broken, and slabs of granite lay in piles of rubble.

It could have been a Terran missile.

It could have been Serenity.

Separated by only a small space, Serenity and Beryl stood in the center of the demolished room. Behind the Queen of Earth stood the shitennou; stiff and vacant, and it was immediately obvious that they were under the sway of Metallia. Behind them, an entire regiment of the Earth army filled the rear of the broken atrium. Standing back to front, they crowded the stairs, packed all the way into the courtyards in front of the Palace.

Mercury and Jupiter joined Venus and Mars on the bottom landing of the stairwell. Jupiter gently lowered Endymion's limp form to the stairs. They watched tensely as Beryl and Serenity finally broke the silence, each of them saying the same word; a desperate and longing name that meant more than life itself.

"Endymion."

Mars' blood ran cold, and for a moment, she wondered if Endymion's role in the legend hadn't taken a back seat to the two woman who had fought for his affections.

"Give him to me." Beryl's demand was a throaty growl.

Serenity smirked. "Never."

The tension in the room snapped. Suddenly, Beryl lunged for Serenity, and in a flash of blinding light, the Princess summoned the white youma. The languid creatures stood still, surrounding her, but when the human army surged forward, streaming around Beryl, the white youma activated to protect the Princess.

The senshi threw themselves into battle, the instinct to protect their Princess overwhelming both the strange circumstances and the sheer odds of humans to the four of them.

The shitennou, however, met the senshi head on, and each woman matched weapons with one of the men, the human army steadily streaming around them, trying to get through the defenses of the white youma.

"Zoicite!" Venus cried the shitennou's name as the silver haired man matched her strength, his curved blade pressed hard against her dagger. "Zoicite, you have to fight this!"

From the corner of her eye, Venus watched as a stray bullet caught Mars in the upper arm. The crimson warrior scrambled to regain control of her dagger, but as Jadeite lunged at her, his short dagger nearly impaled her. Mars dodged at the last moment and the blade only cut a deep gash across her side, slicing through the white armor of her fuku.

From her vantage point, Venus could see the change in her second in command. Mars released her pretense of caution and concern for the men who had once been their reluctant allies.

"Mars, no-"

But the Martian would not stop. Jadeite stumbled past her, carried forward by his momentum. Mars placed her hand to his back, and her fires burned him from the inside. He fell to the floor, still the pretty young man he had always been, for Mars had not marred his exterior.

When the crimson warrior looked up from Jadeite's body, she went tense, for she saw that Venus had faltered. Despite the fact that the golden warrior was at knifepoint, her back pressed tightly against Zoicite's front, Mars could see the shock in Venus' eyes.

"They are no longer our friends," Mars said quietly, and somehow, her voice carried across the din of gunfire and screams and the eerie wails of the white youma.

Mars clenched her fist and stared across the distance at her commander. "Maybe _I_ would have been better suited as leader after all, Minako."

Venus shook in Zoicite's arms. In a mirror reversal of the same hold she had captured him in not long ago, the tip of his blade pierced her neck ever so slightly.

Venus shut her eyes for a brief moment and felt blood rushing to the wound. Then, with a speed and ferocity she didn't know herself capable of, the Venus dagger materialized in a backwards grip in her hand, and she stabbed Zoicite through the abdomen.

She opened her eyes. The knife at her neck trembled, digging in deeper before Zoicite lost his grip completely and it clattered to the floor. She summoned her chain to her shaky hands, wrapped it around her fist, spun to meet Zoicite head on, and then caught him under the chin in an uppercut.

She forced herself to look away from the man who had once been her ally. She looked to Mars and tried to find solace in her understanding gaze.

It wouldn't be long, now.

She straightened. "Help Jupiter." Venus commanded, and then she ran to aid Mercury, who was barely holding her own against Nephrite.

Mercury ducked when Nephrite lunged at her, the tip of a frightening, rotating saw blade nearly shearing off a lock of her short hair. She tripped then, the muscles in her legs long since overtaxed, and she reacted as quickly as she could, taking a fall to the floor and using her momentum to somersault backwards. She rolled sideways over her shoulder to absorb the impact, hoping to roll back to her feet, but she felt the grinding teeth of the saw blade bite into her calf muscle.

Mercury landed ungracefully on her stomach. She propped her hands underneath her and had only pushed her weight up in a scramble to gain her feet when she saw Nephrite's maniacal smile as he swung at her.

His weapon halted a bare inch from her nose, and Mercury could only see its rotating teeth by crossing her eyes.

"Move, Ami-chan!"

Ten feet away, Venus stood with her weight cocked on her rear leg, her center of gravity leaning away from the chain of golden light she held in her wavering grasp, the other end of it lassoed around Nephrite.

Mercury squeaked as she rolled away to the side. No sooner had she scrambled to her feet, Venus' grip gave out and Nephrite fell to the floor without the support of the Venusian chain to support him. He was only down for a short moment, but it was all Venus and Mercury had needed for formulate a plan. Mercury nodded and a short blade made of curved ice formed in her hand. She sprinted toward Nephrite with an expression as cold as her weapon.

She was closer than Venus, and made it to him first, the frigid point of her blade catching Nephrite just under the ribs as he gained his feet. She followed through with the strike until she'd sunk the hilt of her weapon into his stomach. Venus met her a moment later, the Venus dagger coming from above in a wide arc that drove her weapon between his neck and collarbone.

Venus and Mercury could not look at one another across the convulsing muscles of Nephrite's back.

"Jupiter and Mars," Venus said quietly. "We have to help them."

Mercury nodded. She pulled her weapon out of Nephrite's side and ran after her commander, not faltering even when a bullet shot through her left hand.

It was immediately apparent that Kunzite had been granted a power much greater than any of his subordinates. The one man had already dropped their strongest warrior to her knees. Jupiter knelt doubled over on the floor, her hands held to a wound across her side. Mars stood before the Jovian's prone form, her hands splayed open in warning of a fiery death.

Across from the Martian, Kunzite adjusted his grip on the ivory hilt of his long sword. "Try it." He sneered.

Mars' eyes narrowed. She cocked her hands at her hip and then thrust them back out before her in a powerful arc. A concentrated pillar of fire shot across the distance that separated them and completely engulfed the leader of the shitennou.

Mercury pulled Jupiter away from the heat of the flames. The ranks of humans, still falling one by one to the white youma, hurried away from the angry blaze that danced along the rubble and reached up into the black and sooty sky.

But when it cleared, Kunzite still stood; intact and unharmed and with a wide smirk on his thin lips.

"You'll have to try harder than that," He said, and then he ran at Mars with his sword aimed for her chest.

Venus' beam of light was faster. Although it was not one of her stronger attacks, she had emptied what little she had left into the small point of light and it hit Kunzite in the shoulder, piercing all the way through and out the other side; the laser-like projectile continuing until it blew apart a wall on the opposite side of the atrium.

It had been enough to make him pause, but little else. As a last resort, Venus hurled her dagger at him and it lodged in his thigh with a spray of blood.

He stopped and looked down at it. With a grimace, he pulled the gold and crimson dagger out of his flesh and threw the weapon to the floor. He adjusted his grip on his sword. Abandoning Mars as his target, he went after Venus.

She had expended so much of her energy into the beam of light that had saved Mars that her chain could barely materialize. With shaky hands, she managed to throw one end at her attacker, but Kunzite shrugged it off as if it were nothing.

Even as the pointed edge of his long blade pierced Venus in the side, even as she thought she was seeing her death unfold before her eyes, his blade was wrenched out of her, tearing a shallow rip across her ribcage.

She stumbled backwards, clutching the wound, her eyes wide as she watched Mars. After a great leap, the crimson warrior landed on Kunzite's back, and with identical daggers in her hands, she buried both of them into Kunzite's back.

The Venus dagger – the one in Mars' right hand – began to fade in and out of existence as Kunzite struggled, and suddenly, Venus felt the weapon return to her. With its familiar weight in her palm, she could feel it calling out to its twin.

She shook herself from her pain and shock and fear and exhaustion, and she rushed forward, burying the Venus Dagger in Kunzite's front. She and Mars shared an empty look over the shitennou's shoulder, the sounds of battle raging around them.

It was Kunzite that interrupted them.

"Save him." His voice was filled with liquid, but he sounded like himself again.

"What?" Venus asked, her voice hoarse and frightened.

"Save him." He repeated.

Venus looked in the direction he had indicated, and she gasped. Endymion had woken and was running, dodging around the army that had once been under his control, pushing and shoving and making his way to Serenity. He caught a bullet in the shoulder, stumbled, then continued.

Beryl was descending on the Princess. She had snuck through the defenses of the white youma, and was rushing Serenity with the end of a sword that swung wildly.

Serenity stood stark still, a calm and bitter smirk on her lips, as though she knew something that no one else did.

"They can't be saved."

Mars' voice was a reverent whisper as Endymion leapt. He was screaming for their attention, but neither woman seemed to notice him.

Endymion took the blow meant for Serenity. Beryl's sword slid through his stomach, and he stood in frozen shock between the two women.

The humans still waged their battle, attacking and falling to the invincible white youma who had kept their Queen and their enemy hidden from their view.

Numb and beyond shock, Venus and Mars stepped away from Kunzite. The leader of the shitennou fell to his knees and crawled towards his fallen subordinates.

Mars' fists clenched at her side. "That _fool_," she spat.

Kneeling on the floor next to the crimson warrior, Mercury and Jupiter looked up to their comrade.

Venus stepped next to her second in command. "He chose to die a martyr."

Mars turned to her commander, no small amount of distaste evident in her sour expression. "It will do no good," she narrowed her eyes at Venus. "It never does."

"Mars?" Venus asked.

A sharp wail silenced them. It wasn't from the Princess, but from Beryl. The Queen of the Earth fell to her knees, her hands shaking where they covered her mouth. Her gaze was fixed on Endymion, on the sword she had skewered him with. She was frozen with regret, with remorse so powerful that not even the dark power that controlled her could reach the recesses of Beryl's mind.

Her army paused as a whole; each man halting in their positions as if frozen in space and time as the balance between the powers of the light and the dark shifted.

The white youma continued to kill the frozen soldiers as if nothing had changed, as if the creatures were on some kind of unstoppable auto pilot program.

Serenity stared at Endymion, her expression unreadable, the light behind her eyes growing in intensity.

Endymion pawed at the blade that protruded from his stomach. Finally, his adrenaline ran out and he registered the pain and collapsed to his knees.

Serenity turned her face to the black sky above. Her eyes glowed with a frightening intensity.

Another scream pierced across the atrium. This belonged to Kunzite, and it was directed at the blue orb of the Earth that hung high in the black sky. From the white cap of the North Pole, a veil of red was drawn across the planet.

Moments later, the senshi watched as the same, crimson color began to taint their own horizon.

"Serenity,"

Endymion's gasping breath called out and the Princess cried. A shaking sob wracked her body and the light disappeared from her eyes. Her hair became black again, and her strange senshi transformation dissipated.

"Endymion," she cried. She collapsed to her knees and threw her arms around the dying Prince.

"Usagi." All four of the Princess' guardians whispered the one name as the crimson veil settled over them.

Each of them heard one, last voice after the frigid silence of death fell over them.

It was the voice of Usagi, and she said,

"Somehow, I'll make things right again. Somehow, I'll fix all of this."

And then, they knew no more.

* * *

Preview: Chapter 28: Beyond the Past, Through the Present, and Into the Future (Final Chapter)

At Crown Karaoke, Makoto shifted on the couch, the springs beneath her issuing protest. It was the only sound in the quiet room that had otherwise resembled the eerie silence of a death they had only just relived.

"It feels like I've died." Makoto said.

"Again." Rei agreed quietly.

"A third time." Ami said.

"Fourth." Minako's voice was small and quiet. In their present timeline, she may not have died together with her Princess and her comrades before Usagi reset the world, but where she had watched from the sidelines after her illness had taken her before the final battle, she had been witness to the events that had nearly mirrored those of their past lives. She had felt like she'd died with them regardless, and she shivered at the memory.


	28. Chapter 28

Through Their Eyes  
Chapter 28: Beyond the Past, Through the Present, and Into the Future  
By: trusuprise

Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon.

At Crown Karaoke, Makoto shifted on the couch, the springs beneath her issuing protest. It was the only sound in the quiet room that had otherwise resembled the eerie silence of a death they had only just relived.

"It feels like I've died." Makoto said.

"Again." Rei agreed quietly.

"A third time." Ami said.

"Fourth." Minako's voice was small and quiet. In their present timeline, she may not have died together with her Princess and her comrades before Usagi reset the world, but where she had watched from the sidelines after her illness had taken her before the final battle, she had been witness to the events that had nearly mirrored those of their past lives. She had felt like she'd died with them regardless, and she shivered at the memory.

Rei squeezed Minako's hand tightly, and it was only then that Minako even realized that Rei was holding her hand at all. She returned the pressure, their hands joined in the barely existent space between their bodies, and Minako drew her knees closer to her chest.

"We blinked and it was over." As was Ami's way, she tried to distance herself from the situation by stating the facts, and through the facts, she seemed to make peace with the memories.

Rei took the burden of explanation off of her. After all, it was her alter ego that had known the most, back then. "The scales tipped. Metallia had been steadily gaining power, but when Serenity witnessed Endymion's death – a death that was meant for her – she lost control. She tapped into the light; into the power that was meant to control the dark."

"And the age old struggle that waged within the Ginzuishou took precedence over the lives of the entirety of the solar system." Minako said bitterly.

"Yes." Rei said flatly.

"But she defeated both the light and the dark, this time around." Makoto said.

"Usagi kept her promise," Ami agreed, "even though right up to the end, history almost repeated itself."

Makoto leaned forward, placing her elbows on her knees. Her knees brushed up against Ami's, and the smaller woman blushed and pulled away. If Makoto noticed the behavior, she didn't show it.

"Back then," Makoto said, lost to her thoughts, "Rei knew about the future. Her comment about martyrs-"

Ami leaned across the table towards Rei. "Had Rei seen then, what Minako planned to do in this life? I mean… Minako's illness?"

Minako straightened, her face pale. When Rei's hand in hers flinched, she could not look to her second in command.

"It was Usagi," Rei said, more forcefully than was necessary. "Mamoru tried to sacrifice himself in this life too, by trying to absorb Metallia into his body."

"Oh." Makoto said flatly. None of them could find the courage to look at Minako.

An awkward stretch of silence ensued in which each woman found something in the room more interesting than each other.

Always the first to get itchy feet, Makoto stood. Ami flinched at the sudden movement. Makoto smiled at her friends, and it wasn't an entirely untrue gesture.

"Now that we've remembered, I guess we can put all of this behind us."

"Right," Ami chuckled nervously. "I mean, none of this changes _us_, the people we've become in this lifetime."

"I've been saying that for years." Rei said gruffly.

The others tried to chuckle, and this only made Rei's hackles rise.

"What?" She barked. "We were obviously stronger this time around. We managed to help Usagi defeat Metallia, didn't we? We helped her to purify the ginzuishou. We did that without half the powers we had back then, and _most_ of us didn't have our memories of the past life to depend on."

Straightening her shoulders, Rei pulled her hand out of Minako's and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Any resemblance we bear to our past selves is purely coincidental."

Whether or not Rei had seen Minako flinch at those words that had never ceased to hurt her, Minako couldn't tell.

Makoto clapped her hands together. "I'm with Rei on this one."

Minako rose, once again assuming the mantle of leader that she'd always carried. "We should go now," she checked her watch. "It's been nearly twenty four hours. We should all get some rest."

It was an idea that sat well with all of them; each of them had lived through an entire life in just one day and Minako led her troops up the small flight of steps that would return them back to the normal world.

Makoto took over when they spilled into the hallway and she led them through the dimly-lit corridor, through the thumping sounds of bass speakers and the occasional wail of microphone feedback. The lunch regulars were already in their private karaoke rooms and she led them to the back doorway.

They each took a deep breath in the quiet alleyway behind the Crown, and they looked to each other one more time. There was one more awkward moment when each of them became acutely aware that, for the most part, there was an issue that had barely been addressed – the issue of their past relationships with one another - and none of them seemed eager to be the one to call it to anyone's attention. The fact that Makoto had taken them through the back door, away from where Motoki could see them, had not gone unnoticed.

Ami was the first to speak, either out of sheer exhaustion or her constant desire to achieve comfort while with her friends.

"Well," she said in a small voice, "my apartment's that way, so…"

"I'll go with you." Makoto's voice was brash and rushed and the slight blush on her cheeks gave away more than she intended. "I mean, you know, my apartment's in the same direction too."

Ami nodded and Makoto fell into step alongside her. Neither of them turned to look back to their other two friends.

They had their own issues to work out, it seemed. Yet if Makoto and Ami could overcome their awkwardness to at least walk together, what were Minako and Rei capable of?

The two women stood in an awkward silence long after Makoto and Ami had disappeared around the corner, depending on the sounds of the city for any diversion. A car horn, amplified by the tall walls on either side of the alley seemed the catalyst Minako needed.

She turned on her heel and started walking towards the street at a brisk and purposeful pace. She pulled the brim of her hat down over her eyes and adjusted her purse under her arm before turning the corner and merging into the lunchtime foot traffic, letting herself get carried away by the crowd.

A familiar feeling soon tingled against the edges of her awareness. It was one her past persona had felt in the Venusian Tent City and in every corridor of the Moon Palace. It was one she herself had felt on so many of Juuban's streets. And she smiled broadly, though she did not slow down.

She navigated her way down several streets, across several intersections, and finally, into a small park that wasn't very far from the church where she had first met Rei in this life.

The park path narrowed, a small, sandy strip that meandered under hundred year old maple trees. Several people in business suits were hurrying back to their offices after a brief lunch break in the park, and finally, there were no more distractions.

Minako spun on her heel and nearly mastered a scowl.

"Why are you following me?"

Ten feet away, Rei didn't so much as flinch. "Because following you is what I've always done." Her reply was equally intense, and as fiery as her gaze.

Minako cocked a hand on her hip. "You just said that any similarities to our past lives was coincidence."

"I did." Rei replied sharply. "And even before I had the memories of my past life, I've followed you in _this_ life, too." She took several steps closer. "Or have you been so wrapped up in the past that you never noticed my actions in the present?"

Her words threw Minako off, and her ire was made worse when Rei acknowledged the victory she had won.

It took Minako a moment to regain her cool, and finally, she crossed her arms over her chest. "If there's one thing that Hino Rei taught me, it was to live for the present."

"Oh?" Rei asked. Her expression was cool and unreadable, and she took a few steps closer. "And if there's one thing that both Venus Minako and Aino Minako taught _me_, it's that she's always running away from something."

"Is that so?" Minako scowled and stepped forward, until there was barely any room left between them. "Then tell me, Rei. What am I running from?"

Rei almost sneered. "You of all people, who always had their memories of the past, should know best."

"Rei?"

"You're repeating your same mistakes, Minako!"

Shocked by Rei's forwardness, Minako remembered the only time she could recall such forwardness during the Silver Millennium, during the worst of their fights, and then she understood. A blush rising on her cheeks, not for the first time, she cursed Rei's ability to both make her stronger and knock her down simultaneously, and she cursed the way in which Martians showed their feelings.

"Why?" Minako asked. "If you knew you… if you knew I…" She blew an exasperated breath into her bangs.

"You lied." Minako nearly snarled and Rei took a step back. "Your memories returned before this. If you had just relived them, you wouldn't have come to terms with all of this so easily, considering how stubborn-"

"Stubborn?" Rei reclaimed the space she'd given. "What does it matter? Whether I started remembering yesterday or a year ago, it changes nothing!"

Rei looked down at her hands, fidgeting slightly. "Besides," she grumbled. "I didn't lie. You stopped asking about the past life after Usagi… when she brought us all back."

"You could have told me, Rei." Minako's arms fell to her sides and her voice was quiet, as though the wind had been knocked out of her.

"Tell you what?" Rei asked. She smiled; a tentative grin that was small and honest. "That you're incredibly thick headed, or that you're still incredibly blind when it comes to the people who are right in front of you?"

"Rei," Minako said warningly, and she was silenced when the firm pressure of Rei's hand grasped her by the wrist.

"Minako," Rei said.

The simple utterance of their names seemed to trigger a stalemate. Standing so close, both of them brimming with so many things unsaid, so many possibilities in front of them, and so much emotion threatening to spill over, neither knew how to make the next move.

Time had brough them here. Time had changed them. But now, as had been the case for Usagi, it would only be changes brought by their own accord that would help them grow beyond the past, through the present, and into the future.

It was Rei that broke the roles they'd played over and over again. She laughed at the woman before her; it was a laugh that quiet and melodious and full of promise. And then, mentally cataloguing the perplexed expression of her commander, she turned and walked away.

Quite unlike the early relationship between both their past and present lives, Minako rushed to chase after Rei, laughing and calling out as she chased her into the park, and into the future.

* * *

Author's note:

Thanks, everyone, for reading and reviewing!


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